A reputed Colombo Crime Family Underboss caught a break from a
Brooklyn federal judge Monday — after his attorneys argued that he’s too
old and sick to receive a lengthy prison sentence.
Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo, 86, got hit with 15 months in the
slammer by Judge Hector Gonzalez on a guilty plea to money laundering
conspiracy, despite prosecutors seeking a little over two years.
A longer prison sentence would “jeopardize” Castellazzo’s wellbeing,
his attorneys argued, telling the judge his health issues — including a
decade-long battle with cardiac problems — have him on so many
medications, that he wouldn’t receive the proper care in federal prison.
Being placed in the wrong detention center, could “effectively turn
into a death sentence” for the reputed mobster, attorney Ilana Haramati
said.
“He goes to the doctor often. He gets checkups. He’s on a whole battery of medications,” Haramati told the court.
But prosecutors weren’t too interested in hearing about Castellazzo’s
ailments and advanced age — which they argued haven’t steered him away
from his alleged mafioso lifestyle.
For instance, Castellazzo swore to a judge that the courts would
never see him again when he was sentenced to 63 months in prison in 2013
after pleading guilty to mob extortion stemming from a dispute over a stolen red sauce recipe from famed pizza joint L&B Spumoni Gardens in Gravesend.
His health issues seem to pop up each time Castellazzo is in hot water for his alleged crime family dealings, prosecutors said.
“The defendant has referred to his health each time he has been
before a court in his district,” Brooklyn Assistant US Attorney Andrew
Reich told the judge.
Beyond his health issues, Castellazzo’s attorneys argued that the
accused wiseguy could lose his subsidized apartment due to the new
conviction — which would leave him “homeless,” Haramati wrote in a Jan. 3
pre-sentencing letter to the court.
Castellazzo was indicted in 2021 with 13 other defendants — among them nine reputed Colombo family members — on a slew of charges including labor racketeering, extortion and money laundering.
He spent time in lockup before posting a $1.6 million bond in March 2022.
“He didn’t lose it when he was in for six months, but he was kind of
on the brink,” his attorney, Michael Marinaccio, said, referring to his
client’s subsidized apartment.
Among the co-defendants was alleged Colombo crime family mobster Ralph DiMatteo, 68, who infamously posed shirtless in a poolside snapshot while on the lam.
DiMatteo said he had no regrets about the photo when he was sentenced to three years behind bars last year.
Castellazzo pleaded guilty on July 7.
Prosecutors were seeking a sentence between 21 and 27 months in prison.
Castellazzo’s woeful health also includes blockages in his arteries
and a bout with prostate cancer between 2011 and 2015, according to his
attorney.
At the end of his sentencing, the judge told Castellazzo that he
hoped he would grow out of alleged crime family dealings — but didn’t
sound too hopeful.
“Hopefully this will be the end but only time will tell,” Gonzalez
said, ordering Castellazzo to surrender to begin his sentence on March
22.
Asked at the end of the proceedings why his nickname is “The Claw,” Castellazzo laughed along with his son.
Crime really didn’t pay for a reputed Colombo family underboss — who
once again is claiming poverty as he asks for leniency when he’s
sentenced for a union shakedown scheme.
Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo, 86, is so short on cash that he
might become homeless if he loses his federally subsidized senior
housing while he’s in the can, his lawyer wrote to a federal judge this month. His net worth is just $5,092, according to his lawyer.
Castellazzo is slated to be sentenced for money laundering conspiracy on Jan. 22.
“While Mr. Castellazzo was not evicted during his approximately
six-month period of pretrial detention earlier in this case, a sentence
that exposes him to far more time in custody would risk his eviction,”
his lawyer, Ilana Haramati, wrote in a Jan. 3 sentencing letter to
Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Hector Gonzalez.
“In his late 80s, he would be homeless. Without access to subsidized
senior housing, he is unlikely to be able to afford another apartment.”
Castellazzo also cast himself as a brokefella with a laundry list of medical conditions at a 2013 extortion sentencing in Brooklyn Federal Court.
His lawyer at the time said Castellazzo and his wife were living in a
modest mobile home in New Jersey, getting by on Social Security
payments and food stamps.
In a 2021 feature story about Castellazzo’s life, NJ.com reported
that he and his wife reported a combined monthly income of $1,115 when
she filed for bankruptcy in 2011, and they paid $450 a month to live in
the mobile home.
Hard times or not, he still got hard time — Judge Kiyo Matsumoto still sentenced him
to more than five years behind bars, pointing out his decades-spanning
criminal career, and noting that he brought up his medical condition in a
2002 sentencing.
Castellazzo and his wife moved into a HUD-subsidized rental apartment
complex, Stafford by the Bay, in Manahawkin, N.J., in 2018. He’s lived
alone there since her death, Haramati wrote.
Castellazzo could face between 24 to 30 months behind bars after
pleading guilty in his most recent case, which stems from a takedown of the entire leadership of the Colombo crime family.
The crime family’s labor union shakedown started in 2001, and by
2019, the Colombos were trying to turn the Queens union, which
represented construction workers in New York, New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, into a mob-run operation.
All of the 14 defendants busted in the case have taken a plea, except
for the Colombo boss, Andrew “Mush” Russo, who died in April 2022 at
age 87.
Haramati also argued that Castellazzo’s failing health should factor
into his sentence, pointing to how a recent detainee at Brooklyn
Metropolitan Detention Center was not sent to a medical facility for
several weeks despite a highly contagious MRSA infection.
“Mr. Castellazzo’s long term care cannot be entrusted to the (Bureau
of Prisons) — the BOP’s recent track record caring for sick and elderly
inmates is nothing short of appalling,” she wrote.
An “old school” Colombo crime family consigliere who notoriously was
photographed lounging shirtless in a swimming pool was sentenced to
three years behind bars for a labor union extortion plot.
Ralph DiMatteo, 68, called “No. 3” by his fellow mafioso, was
sentenced in Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday, after his 2021
indictment alongside the entire Colombo leadership for shaking down a Queens construction union.
“He’s old school,” DiMatteo’s lawyer, Gerald McMahon, told Brooklyn Federal Court
Judge Hector Gonzalez. “Mr. DiMatteo did wrong. He accepted
responsibility. He took a plea. He’s taking his medicine. He wants it to
be on him.”
DiMatteo pleaded guilty to racketeering in July, admitting to extortion and money laundering. One of his underlings, Vincent “Vinny Unions” Ricciardo,
pressured a high-ranking union official into paying a $2,600 monthly
“pension” to the mob family for nearly 20 years — nearly $600,000 in
total.
All 14 suspects in the case have pleaded guilty — except for family head Andrew “Mush” Russo, who died in April 2022 at age 87.
Other co-defendants include underboss Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo
and Theodore “Skinny Teddy” Persico Jr. — the nephew of notorious
Colombo boss Carmine “The Snake” Persico and the heir apparent to the crime family
The Colombos also pressured a health fund associated with the union
into picking mob-friendly vendors and paying $10,000 a month in tribute.
DiMatteo was directly responsible for overseeing Ricciardo, and the
consigliere was caught on wiretapped conversations commanding Ricciardo
to move faster with his extortion efforts.
“Part of the privilege of being towards the top is that you don’t
have to get your hands dirty yourself. You have other people do that on
your behalf,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gibaldi said at DiMatteo’s
sentencing.
When the judge asked DiMatteo if he wanted to make a statement, he replied, “I’m fine, thank you.”
DiMatteo was the only member of the 14 Colombos indicted in 2021 to
initially evade arrest, after he traveled to Florida the day before. He
surrendered three days later, after his son, Angelo DiMatteo, posted a picture on Twitter of his shirtless dad casually hanging poolside.
Angelo also posted a rat emoji on the social media site, suggesting someone in the Colombo family squealed to the feds.
DiMatteo, who’s set to surrender Jan. 15, told reporters Tuesday he had no regrets showing off his beach bod in the photo.
The heir apparent to the Colombo crime family pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking part in a labor union extortion plot that led the feds to bust the Mafia clan’s entire leadership in 2021.
Theodore
“Skinny Teddy” Persico Jr., the nephew of notorious Colombo boss
Carmine “The Snake” Persico,” pleaded guilty to racketeering in Brooklyn
Federal Court for what will likely be a six-year federal prison
sentence.
Persico,
59, is the latest bigwig in the once-powerful Colombo family to take a
plea in the case which brought down then-boss Andrew “Mush” Russo,
underboss Benjamin “Benji” Castellazzo, consigliere Ralph DiMatteo and
capos Richard Ferrara and Vincent Ricciardo.
DiMatteo pleaded guilty
on July 6. Once Ricciardo enters his guilty plea on Friday, all of the
14 suspects in the case will have taken a plea — except for Russo, who died in April 2022 at age 87.
The
labor union shakedown started in 2001. By 2019, the family’s hierarchy
started plotting to turn the Queens union, which represented
construction workers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, into a
mob-run operation — taking scoops out of officials’ salaries and
pillaging its health fund.
Ricciardo,
known as “Vinnie Unions,” threatened to murder a construction union
boss who was forced to surrender a portion of his annual income to the
mob, according to the feds.
A
month before Russo’s death, federal prosecutors described Persico as
the “boss-to-be” of the Colombos in a letter opposing his release on
bond.
His
career of crime started in 1981 at age 17, when he was busted for
attempted grand larceny on Staten Island and later spent 17 years behind
bars for drug dealing until his release in 2004.
The
prison sentence didn’t stop him from doing the mob’s deadly business.
In 1993, while on a brief furlough for his grandmother’s wake, he
ordered members of his crew to kill Joseph Scopo, a member of a rival Colombo faction.
He
pleaded guilty to murder conspiracy in 2012 in exchange for a 10-year
sentence, and was freed on supervised release in May 2020.
“I assure you I’ll do my best not to be here again,” Persico Jr. pledged to Brooklyn Federal Judge Sandra Townes at his 2014 sentencing.
Persico’s future in the family became a topic of conversation during a meeting of the Colombo minds at Brooklyn’s notorious Brennan and Carr restaurant in 2020. Persico was tapped to take over for Russo once his supervised release ended, according to the feds.
On
Wednesday, Persico pleaded guilty to racketeering, admitting to
extortion conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy in connection with
the labor union plot.
Though
the charge carries a 20-year maximum sentence, prosecutors don’t expect
to ask for more than 71 months, and he can appeal if the sentence
exceeds 105 months.
Brooklyn
Federal Court Judge Hector Gonzalez set his sentencing for Oct. 17, and
when Persico chimed in that date was his fiancee’s birthday, the jurist
told him, “She can come to court.”
When
asked when the wedding would take place, Persico’s lawyer Joseph
Corozzo told reporters, “It depends on the sentence. Hopefully sooner
than later.”
A high-ranking gangster in the Colombo crime family who infamously appeared lounging shirtless in a swimming pool while on the lam pleaded guilty to racketeering Thursday.
Ralph DiMatteo, who prosecutors say was the clan’s consigliere,
admitted to extortion, conspiracy and money laundering from 2020 to 2021
in Brooklyn federal court — including a scheme to threaten a union
official identified only as “John Doe No. 1.”
The 68-year-old opted for a dark blazer, dark blue shirt and dark
green tie in a sedate change from the picture of him posing shirtless in
a pool — a snapshot that surfaced one day after DiMatteo was supposed
to turn himself in September 2021.
The Colombo family’s third most powerful member memorably jetted to Florida a day before the feds charged 13 co-defendants
with major raps, including labor racketeering, extortion and money
laundering related to the infiltration of a Queens labor union.
In the photo, the wise guy appeared shirtless and half-submerged in a
swimming pool with a gold crucifix resting against his burly chest.
But DiMatteo’s days on the run were cut short after his son posted the pool photo to Twitter — leading to his surrendering just a day later.
The sweeping indictment involved other reputable Colombo leaders — including then-boss Andrew “Mush” Russo, who died in April 2022 while awaiting trial, and underboss Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo, who is set to plead guilty Friday.
Captains Theodore Persico Jr., Richard Ferrara, and Vincent Ricciardo are also named in an indictment.
DiMatteo didn’t mention the Mafia or the Colombo family during his appearance — only referring to the group as “the enterprise.”
Judge Hector Gonzalez said the guidelines for sentencing DiMatteo range between 41 and 51 months in prison.
He will be sentenced on Oct. 5.
When approached outside the courtroom, DiMatteo turned shy.
A federal judge in New York has approved the release of an ailing 84-year-old New Jersey mob underboss accused of leading the Colombo crime family’s attempted takeover of a Queens-based labor union on a $1.6 million bond.
On
Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Cho granted Benjamin “The
Claw” Castellazzo’s release on bond and home detention with electronic
monitoring and restrictions on travel and contact with victims and
witnesses in the case following a closed hearing in Brooklyn Federal
Court. The judge also barred him from appearing at the labor union
office at the center of the indictment.
Afterward, Jennifer R. Louis-Jeune, Castellazzo’s attorney, confirmed her client was set to be released Wednesday.
“Mr.
Castellazzo has been released on bond,” she said, “and will now
hopefully get the healthcare he needs and prepare his defense.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York declined to comment.
Castellazzo,
of Manahawkin, had been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in
Brooklyn since September when federal authorities indicted him and 13
others in an alleged scheme to infiltrate and take over the labor union
and its health care benefits programs. Prosecutors charged Castellazzo
with racketeering, extortion, and money laundering conspiracies.
Last
week, Louis-Jeune filed a motion for his release, citing his chronic
health and conditions during confinement that she described as “nothing
short of inhumane.” She also wrote that Castellazo wasn’t receiving
proper medical care and had been subjected to 23-hour lockdowns.
Prosecutors previously opposed Castellazzo’s release, citing his lengthy criminal history
and role in the crime family. But in a letter to Cho last week,
prosecutors did not contest his release after learning of Castellazzo’s
deteriorating health.
Last
week, Louis-Jeune told NJ Advance Media that prosecutors had offered
Castellazzo a plea deal, but it is unclear if he would accept it. The
attorney said the evidence she was reviewed so far against her client
“is not just weak, it is non-existent.”
In the charging documents,
prosecutors said recorded conversations described Castellazzo as the
man in charge of the Colombo crime family’s takeover of the union and
its health fund. According to the indictment, they contend authorities
spotted him with associates on two occasions in Brooklyn, where he
discussed the takeover.
But
Louis-Jeune wrote in a court filing last week that the government “does
not have a single recording of Mr. Castellazzo’s voice.”
Castellazzo
now joins a list of other Colombo crime family leaders and associates
who have been released as the criminal case proceeds. Since October,
Andrew Russo, the 87-year-old head of the Colombo crime family, has been free on a $10 million bond.
The 84-year-old New Jersey mob underboss, who authorities allege led the Colombo crime family’s attempted takeover of a Queens-based labor union, is again seeking release from a federal detention center.
On
Thursday, Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo’s attorney filed a motion in
the Eastern District of New York seeking his release from the
Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. She described Castellazzo’s
time there as “nothing short of inhumane” and proposed that authorities
release him on a $3.1 million bond and other conditions, including home
confinement.
In
September, federal prosecutors in New York arrested and charged
Castellazzo with racketeering, extortion, and money laundering
conspiracies for the Colombo crime family’s alleged role in infiltrating
and trying to control the labor union and its health care benefits
programs. He was among 14 people - 10 Colombo family members or
associates - implicated in the alleged scheme in a 19-count indictment unsealed in September.
A judge denied a bail request
the following month, citing Castellazzo’s lengthy criminal history and
alleged continued association with those tied to the Colombo crime
family.
In
Thursday’s court filing, Jennifer R. Louis-Jeune, his attorney, wrote
that Castellazzo, of Manahawkin, has developed chronic health
conditions, isn’t receiving proper medical care, and has been subjected
to 23-hour lockdowns since his arrest.
“He
should not be forced to manage his chronic health conditions in a
facility that cannot effectively communicate with him, treat him, or
transport him to health professionals qualified and equipped to care for
him,” she wrote.
In addition, Louis-Jeune said prosecutors had denied Castellazzo access to evidence in his case.
She
said the evidence she reviewed “is not just weak, it is non-existent.”
She also told NJ Advance Media that prosecutors had offered her client a
plea deal, though it is unclear whether Castellazzo would accept it.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York declined comment.
In the charging documents,
prosecutors said recorded conversations described Castellazzo as the
man in charge of the Colombo crime family’s takeover of the union and
its health fund. According to the indictment, they contend authorities
spotted him with associates on two occasions in Brooklyn, where he
discussed the takeover.
But Louis-Jeune wrote in her filing Thursday that the government “does not have a single recording of Mr. Castellazzo’s voice.”
“(Their)
entire case against our client rests on Mr. Castellazzo’s alleged
position in the family, presence at two “meetings” in November 2020, and
vague references to someone the government believes to be Mr.
Castellazzo made by others on recorded lines,” she wrote.
As
conditions for release, Louis-Jeune said Castellazzo would agree to the
$3.1 million personal recognizance bond, secured by various properties
and executed by six people; home detention with electronic monitoring;
no contact with others charged in the case; and no visitors at his home.
She noted that otherscharged in the case, including Andrew Russo, the 87-year-old head of the Colombo crime family, are free on bail.
Prosecutors previously opposed Castellazzo’s release, arguing phone calls he made after
his arrest showed that he continues to associate with Colombo crime
family members. They contended that he still had the means to
orchestrate mob business.
Louis-Jeune
described the government’s position as “wildly speculative” and said
there is “no basis to suggest Mr. Castellazzo was directing criminal
activity.”
Authorities have scheduled a bond hearing for March 9.
Within days of being arrested at a New Jersey nursing home, federal authorities accused the octogenarian underboss of the Colombo crime family of still conducting mob business inside a New York jail.
In three recorded phone calls from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo, 84, told a woman to have a member of his family pass a message to other members of the Colombo crime family at a Brooklyn garage reportedly used for mob business, asked associates for money and directed a family member to remove items from his apartment and discard of his cell phone, federal authorities wrote in a detention memo.
The Brooklyn garage is where authorities said Castellazzo, a Manahawkin resident, often did business with other members of the Colombo crime family as they engaged in a conspiracy to take control of a New York City-based labor union.
Castellazzo has been indicted on a number of charges related to his role as the “number two” of the crime family, including racketeering, extortion and money laundering conspiracies, conspiracy to steal and embezzle health benefit funds, and conspiracy to commit health care fraud, among other charges, officials said.
Prosecutors used the phone calls to argue that Castellazzo should be held without bail. They said the calls show Castellazzo continues to associate with Colombo crime family members and that as the underboss, he still has the means to orchestrate mob business, despite his age and numerous health conditions.
“In short, the defendant has the capabilities to direct (and clearly has directed) others to take actions for him,” prosecutors wrote in arguing for his detention throughout the case.
A judge ultimately ruled last week to deny Castellazzo bail, citing his lengthy criminal history and his continued association with Colombo members.
“He’s continuing to affiliate with other individuals who are charged with serious crimes that arise out of that meeting,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Sanket J. Bulsara said at the bail hearing.
Bulsara said he was particularly troubled by Castellazzo’s demand that a family member discard his cell phone and other items. He called it “highly problematic.”
Prosecutors detailed the call in their detention memo:
Castellazzo: Did you find what you had to find? ... No, but what I’m saying, did you?
Family member: Yea, that I took yea.
Castellazzo: Oh, okay, all right that’s what I’m talking about, ha, all right, okay.
Family member: Yea, yea, they, ha, like I said, yup, I got it.
Castellazzo: . . . with my cellphone, when you get it, just throw it away
Prosecutors also said the other two calls detailed his continued involvement with the Colombo crime family.
Castellazzo’s attorney argued the phone calls were relatively standard after someone is arrested.
“Give it to [name], tell him to get in touch with my friend [name], okay? And for him, to tell somebody in the garage, he’ll know what I’m talking about, to send me money, they gotta do it through western union...and tell him, to ah, did he do everything that I told him to do?,” Castellazzo could be heard saying in the phone call on Sept. 17, three days after he was arrested.
In another call, he also directed another woman female to meet with the same member of the Colombo crime family on his behalf, according to the recorded phone calls.
Castellazzo’s attorney Jennifer Louis-Jeune said nearly all of her clients call family or friends and ask for money on their commissary after being arrested.
Though prosecutors said, “it’s not what’s being said, it’s who he’s communicating with and what he’s asking for.”
Louis-Jeune downplayed the recorded phone calls.
“As far as the phone calls that the government cites to, the government’s interpretation of these calls is just that. It’s the government’s interpretation. And I think that these calls could be easily explained in other ways,” she said, adding that Castellazzo knew they would be recorded.
She also argued that Castellazzo should be released on strict bail conditions, citing his age, lack of financial means to flee and lack of proper medical care at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a jail notorious for troubling conditions.
Castellazzo has an extensive criminal history dating back to 1959, when he was sentenced to a four-to-eight-year prison sentence following a conviction for grand larceny after he was involved in a theft, with others, of a tractor trailer truck containing carpeting, according to court documents.
More convictions and prison terms would follow and by 2002, federal authorities identified Castellazzo as a captain of the Colombo crime family. After serving yet another prison term, court documents in 2008 named him as the underboss. He was last released from federal prison in 2015.
While the judge considering bail in Castellazzo’s latests charges agreed that conditions at the Brooklyn detention center are “horrific, horrendous, despicable, untenable,” he ordered him to remain jailed noting that Castellazzo is not the ordinary 84-year-old his attorney was making him out to be.
“Getting rid of a cell phone, directing the people meet up at a certain place, do certain things, it’s not clear at all that it has the kind of innocent characteristics that you would suggest,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Sanket J. Bulsara said of Castellazzo.
Accused mob underboss Benjamin Castellazzo is known as the “Claw” because he gets his hands on everything.
It started in the 1950s when he was convicted for hijacking a carpeting truck and continued in the decades since.
But
when he appeared before a federal judge in New York in 2013 to be
sentenced as the underboss of the Colombo crime family on a racketeering
charge, which included extortion over a pizza sauce recipe of a famed
Brooklyn pizzeria, Castellazzo said he was done with the life of crime.
He
was 75, his wife of 58 years had health issues and he wanted to live
out his final years in New Jersey with his two children, eight
grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
The claws would be retired, he promised.
“I
have reflected on my life during the last two years I have been in jail
since my arrest. I can tell your honor without hesitation, I am not
proud of the life I have led,” Castellazzo wrote to the judge before
being sentenced to 63 months in prison. “...I can tell your honor in all
sincerity that you will never see me before this or any court of law
again.”
He was released from federal prison in 2015, but the feds came calling once again last month.
Castellazzo,
now 83, was indicted once again as the underboss of the Colombo crime
family on a number of charges related to its long-running scheme to take
control of a New York City-based labor union. Federal authorities have
pinpointed Castellazzo as the man in charge of the matter recently.
He
was denied bail and is currently being held at the Metropolitan
Detention Center in Brooklyn. Castellazzo has pleaded not guilty to the
latest charges.
“Mr. Castellazzo
plans to fight the charges against him,” his attorney, Jennifer R.
Louis-Jeune, said in a statement. She did not respond to additional
requests for comment.
The 19-count
indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of New York delivered a
blow to the Colombo crime family as its administration (the boss,
underboss and consigliere) were all charged in connection with the
conspiracy, along with a number of other members.
The FBI's depiction of the mob's organizational structure is shown in a file graphic.
It
also highlighted how the mob continues to operate in the region. The
indictment details discreet meetings in Brooklyn garages, threats to
union officials and how the family allegedly maneuvered money to top
mobsters from union health funds.
“The
underbelly of the crime families in New York City is alive and well,”
Michael Driscoll, the assistant director-in-charge of New York’s FBI
field office, said when announcing the charges.
It’s
a world that Castellazzo, a longtime Manahawkin resident, has long been
a part of, according to court documents from numerous convictions
related to his life in the underworld.
Dating back to the mid-20th century, Castellazzo has faced charges for a wide range of crimes that the mob is often involved in.
And
at 83 — despite a large family and numerous health concerns of his own —
the Claw apparently hasn’t been able to leave the life, which is not
uncommon for those entrenched in the Mafia, according to organized crime
experts.
Because of this, many of the leaders stay in the game over decades and earn status as a leader.
The
Colombo crime family boss busted earlier this month, Andrew Russo, is
87. And years ago, during the monumental Mafia Commission Trial, which
took down the leaders of the five families in New York City in the
1980s, multiple high-ranking members were over the age of 70.
“Whenever
you look back on a lot of these cases of these guys, they are not often
spring chickens,” said Jay Albanese, a criminology professor at
Virginia Commonwealth University, who specializes in organized crime.
The
blend of street crimes and white-collar schemes is all many of them
know, and since much of the money members earn is off the books, there
is a financial incentive to remain in the game.
Castellazzo,
according to court documents, has lived in a New Jersey trailer park in
recent years and his wife previously filed for bankruptcy.
“You
have these guys that are doing this their whole lives,” said David
Shapiro, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor and former FBI
agent who investigated the mob in New York City. “What else are they
going to do?”
It’s unclear when
Castellazzo earned his nickname as the Claw, but it was more than 60
years ago when he was first sentenced for getting his hands on something
that wasn’t his.
In 1959,
Castellazzo, then in his 20s, was sentenced to a four-to-eight-year
prison sentence following a conviction for grand larceny after he was
involved in a theft, with others, of a tractor trailer truck containing
carpeting, according to court documents.
It would be the start of a life of crime spanning decades.
Castellazzo
got caught up in a heroin importation and distribution ring and was
sentenced to four years in prison in 1976 following a conviction for the
unlawful use of a telephone in the commission of a felony.
His
next prison stint would be in 1995 when he was sentenced to an
eight-months after being convicted of operating an illegal gambling
business that held craps games, conducted illegal numbers betting
operations and accepted wagers on sporting events, according to court
documents.
It wasn’t until 2002
that federal authorities identified Castellazzo’s place in the mob. He
was described that year by authorities as a captain — a prominent
position — of the Colombo crime family when he was convicted of owning
and operating a social club where he used extortive measures related to
credit, gambling and other criminal activity.
As
a 64-year-old, he pleaded with the judge then to lessen his sentence
due to his age and health reasons, including hypertension and other
blood-related issues, but was eventually sentenced to three years in
prison for running the club.
Upon being released in 2005, Castellazzo still couldn’t leave the life behind.
Castellazzo
was able to elevate himself within the Colombo family’s hierarchy. By
2008, according to court documents, he became the family’s underboss, or
second-in-command.
He helped lead
a “months-long project to re-energize the Colombo crime family,”
prosecutors said in court documents, and presided over a 2009 ceremony
inducting new members into the family.
It
came to a head in 2011 when federal authorities arrested 127 accused
mobsters, including Castellazzo, from around the region, making it the
largest one-day Mafia bust in U.S. history.
He was indicted on charges of racketeering, money laundering conspiracies, extortion and possessing a firearm.
Prosecutors
said in his capacity as the underboss, Castellazzo “sanctioned and
indirectly oversaw, and profited from, several of the crimes of violence
alleged in the Indictment.”
But
he quickly cut a deal. Within nine months of being charged, Castellazzo
pleaded guilty to one count racketeering conspiracy related to shaking
down a construction company, as well as being involved in a pizza sauce
recipe war.
A family member of a
Colombo associate owned L&B Spumoni Gardens, a famed Brooklyn
pizzeria. The family came to believe that the children of a Bonanno
crime family associate, who worked at the pizzeria and later left to
open their own store on Staten Island, stole the sauce recipe for their
new venture.
Members of the
Colombo family confronted the new owners and wanted proceeds from the
Staten Island pizzeria. Eventually, they settled on a few thousand
dollars, a cut of which was given to Castellazzo, who had been “kept
apprised of the situation,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors even alluded to his nickname in their sentencing memo.
Castellazzo
was able “to get his ‘claw’ into any crime committed by any member or
associate of the Colombo crime family, including violent crimes,” they
wrote.
‘An extraordinary man’
Castellazzo was seen as a much different man to those close to him than to prosecutors.
As
he went before a judge in 2013 to be sentenced after pleading guilty to
racketeering from the 2011 indictment, those around him described
Castellazzo as a loving and devoted family man, who was ready to put his
criminal life behind him and live within the law.
James
J. Dipietro, his attorney, said Castellazzo had “deep remorse and (made
an) unconditional promise to be rid of his past life involving crime.”
“I
know he has a criminal history, but I truly believe he has now come to
the realization that the only real issue in life that matters is to
spend the rest of his remaining years in the comfort of his wife,
children, grandchildren and great grandchildren,” Dipietro wrote eight
years ago as he sought a lesser sentence for his client.
“He is an extraordinary man,” Castellazzo’s daughter wrote at the time.
His daughter-in-law described how Castellazzo gave shoes and food to less fortunate residents near his Manahawkin home.
“He is a loving, caring individual who has touched many lives with his gentle ways,” she wrote.
A retired school teacher and former tutor to his children even wrote to the judge on behalf of Castellazzo.
“The
values of family and community are the very fabric of our society,” the
woman wrote. “In my estimation Mr. Castellazzo has always demonstrated
the importance of being a loving father and caring, compassionate
neighbor.”
He did not live the flashy lifestyle of a mobster often depicted in pop culture.
For
at least the last 15 years, Castellazzo and his wife, Sophie, lived
very modestly in Manahawkin and struggled financially, according to
court documents.
His wife filed
for bankruptcy in 2011, saying the combined monthly income between her
and her husband was $1,115 — entirely from Social Security, according to
a bankruptcy filing. Their monthly net income was -$490, according to
the filing.
They were paying $450 per month to live in a mobile home in Manahawkin, the filing says.
Sophie
Castellazzo was also sued numerous times for failing to pay other small
claim debts in state court in New Jersey, according to court documents.
Shapiro,
the professor and former FBI agent, said Castellazzo is an example of
how made men aren’t always as wealthy as the general public imagines.
“The
kernel of truth of what he was saying (about the mobile home) is that a
lot of these guys aren’t nearly as wealthy as you think,” Shapiro said.
“They don’t make nearly as much money as you think so if they want to
live large, they have to stay in the game. There is no way to get out of
the game and live that kind of lifestyle. They don’t have savings or
severance plans.”
“What are they going to do?” he added. “Go work at Costco?”
Latest charges
So the Claw apparently kept working, according to federal authorities.
In
the latest allegations against him, authorities said Castellazzo was
recently put in charge of the Colombo family’s two-decade long scheme to
infiltrate and take control of a Queens-based labor union and its
health care benefit programs as their extortion efforts stalled.
The
scheme was centered around forcing a senior union official and others
to make decisions that benefitted the crime family, like forcing them to
select vendors for contracts who were associated with the mobsters,
according to the indictment.
Castellazzo
reportedly worked directly with Vincent Ricciardo, also known as “Vinny
Unions,” who was on the ground leading the alleged extortion efforts,
authorities said. Ricciardo could be heard on a recording in April
saying that Castellazzo was in charge of the Colombo crime family’s
takeover of the union and its health fund, according to the indictment.
Ricciardo
was also caught in a recorded conversation threatening to kill the
senior union official the family was allegedly extorting, authorities
said.
Castellazzo and other
Colombo mobsters also allegedly used a scheme to launder money from the
health benefit programs to themselves, according to the indictment. They
sought to divert more than $10,000 per month from health fund to the
administration of the Colombo crime family, which included Castellazzo,
authorities said.
He has been
charged with racketeering, extortion and money laundering conspiracies,
conspiracy to steal and embezzle health benefit funds, and conspiracy to
commit health care fraud, among other charges.
Authorities said crime families cannot survive without structure and leadership, which they allege Castellazzo played a role in.
“Members
and associates of the crime family could not commit the bread and
butter crimes of the mafia such as extortion and loansharking, if not
for Castellazzo,” the indictment says.
It was the role he told the judge he was going to leave in 2013 after a life of crime.
Castellazzo
knew his life would soon come to a close. He told the judge he wanted
to spend the remaining years of his life with his immediate family, who
he had embarrassed once again.
Instead,
Castellazzo now sits behind bars once again and could for years, as the
prosecution moves forward with another case against him and his other
family.
Andrew "Mush" Russo, an alleged Colombo crime family boss, arrives at Brooklyn Federal Court in 2013.
The to-die-for hot roast beef sandwich wasn’t the only thing on the
menu when the Colombo family hierarchy gathered at Brooklyn’s legendary
Brennan and Carr restaurant.
The Daily News has learned the crime family’s top echelon assembled on
two separate occasions to discuss mob business inside the 83-year-old
eatery last November, much to the surprise of a somewhat amused
management.
“That’s interesting,” said veteran Brennan and Carr manager Richie Egan, a smile on his face. “I never even knew.”
Federal investigators, on the other hand, were well aware of the
sessions led by Colombo boss Andrew “Mush” Russo. Court documents
indicate both meetings were under law enforcement surveillance as the
86-year-old Russo, underboss Benjamin Castellazo, consigliere Ralph
DiMatteo and a pair of family capos discussed a change at the top of the
family leadership and the ongoing shakedown of a local union.
Ralph DiMatteo
Like a plate of pasta and a glass of red wine, the mob and New York’s
restaurant business remain inextricably linked a full 90 years after
Guiseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria was gunned down inside Coney Island’s
Nuova Villa Tammaro on April 15, 1931.
The scene after Guiseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria was killed inside Coney Island’s Nuova Villa Tammaro in 1931.
On July 12, 1979, Bonanno boss Carmine Galante ate his last meal on the
patio of Joe & Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant in Brooklyn, with
a final course of lethal lead. The dead don was famously photographed
with his post-lunch cigar still clenched between his teeth.
The July 12, 1979 murder of Bonanno boss Carmine Galante at Joe & Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant in Brooklyn.
And just before Christmas 1985, Gambino boss Big Paul Castellano and
driver Tommy Billotti parked illegally outside Spark’s Steak House
before heading inside for some prime rib with fellow mobsters.
Neither made it to the front door, gunned down by four shooters waiting on orders from new boss John Gotti.
Death is not the only pitfall in public dining. On occasion, the
assembled Mafiosi were caught on bugs that no Health Department
inspector would ever find.
Back in 2003, veteran Genovese capo John “Buster” Ardito wound up with
agita after discovering recording devices tucked beneath tables at two
of his favorite New Rochelle restaurants.
And 16 years prior, wiretaps inside the ladies’ room of a Hoboken
restaurant captured Gambino family consigliere Bobby Manna discussing a
plot to whack both Gambino boss Gotti and his brother Gene.
“We’re gonna be paying for this, you know, for the rest of our lives,”
one of the plotters observed during the recorded discussion.
The body of Carmine Galante is taken out of Joe & Mary's Restaurant on Knickerbocker Ave. in Brooklyn in 1979.
Former Bonanno boss “Big Joey” Massino, a man who liked a good meal,
opened his own Queens restaurant: CasaBlanca, where a sign promised
“Fine Italian Cuisine” to its patrons. The eatery became a meeting place
for the mob, with Bonanno capos among the regulars at the Maspeth
business.
Among the menu favorites: Ravioli with scallops and portabella mushrooms.
According to court documents, the Colombo leadership first assembled
inside Brennan and Carr in mid-November before returning for a second
sitdown on Nov. 19. Russo did not attend the latter meeting, although
his designated Colombo family successor Theodore Persico Jr. showed up.
And once again, so did the feds.
The 58-year-old Skinny Teddy, identified as a family captain in court
papers, is a nephew of the late Colombo family boss Carmine “Junior”
Persico.
The Brennan and Carr restaurant on Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn.
After Gotti’s ascension to the Gambino seat of power, the Dapper Don’s
favorite restaurants received a boost from his patronage: The
since-shuttered Da Noi on the Upper East Side and the late, lamented
Taormino in Little Italy became instant hot spots. He was known for
paying in cash, and leaving generous tips.
And the April 7, 1972, mob hit of Colombo family legend “Crazy Joey”
Gallo inside Umberto’s Clam House on Mulberry St. lives on in pop
culture, featured prominently in director Martin Scorsese’s 2019 film
“The Irishman.”
Umbertos Clam House at 129 Mulberry St. where Joe Gallo was shot and killed.
The Brooklyn-born Gallo, killed at age 43 to end a long night
celebrating his last birthday, was memorialized by Bob Dylan in a 1976
song with an oblique reference to the site of Joey’s last meal (shrimp,
scungilli and clams).
“One day they blew him down in a clam bar in New York,” sang Dylan. “He
could see it comin’ through the door as he lifted up his fork ... Joey,
Joey. What made them want to blow you away?”
Fugitive Colombo crime family consigliere turned himself in to the FBI in New York City Friday morning after his son posted - and later deleted - a picture of him sitting poolside in Florida, law enforcement sources told DailyMail.com.
Ralph
DiMatteo, 66, walked into the Brooklyn federal courthouse with his
lawyer to surrender and was arraigned via teleconference on racketeering
charges Thursday afternoon.
He
pleaded not guilty to all charges and will be held in jail until his
next court appearance, which is scheduled for October 21.
The alleged mobster was the only one to
avoid arrest in Tuesday's sweeping federal raid targeting the leadership
of the Colombo crime family.
The
alleged consigliere, or advisor to the crime boss, made national
headlines after his son Angelo posted a picture of his dad - shirtless
and waist-deep in a Florida pool - to his Twitter account on Wednesday and removed it by Thursday morning.
DiMatteo's wife is pictured behind him, with her head at the edge of the pool as she relaxes and enjoys its waters.
He also tweeted a picture of a rat,
suggesting the family is unhappy about snitches getting them in trouble,
on Tuesday. That too has been removed.
The
indictment accuses the crime family of running a scheme involving labor
union shakedowns, extortion, loansharking, drug trafficking and money
laundering.
DiMatteo is accused of
colluding with fellow defendants to devise a scheme to launder money
from union healthcare contracts and payments.
DiMatteo
is said to have done this through various channels linked to Joseph
Bellantoni, who was named as a co-conspirator in the indictment, and
eventually to the Colombo crime family's leaders, according to the
federal indictment.
He was also accused
of threatening bodily harm to control the management of the labor union
that they were targeting and influencing decisions that benefitted the
family.
Reputed Colombo street boss Andrew "Andy
Mush" Russo, 87, and his underboss, Benjamin "The Claw" Castellazzo, 83,
were also scooped up by federal agents and New York police, along with
seven other members of the Colombo crime family.
Among
those charged was 75-year-old capo (captain) Vincent "Vinny Unions'"Ricciardo, who was recorded during a phone call in June threatening to
kill a labor union official if he didn't play ball, according to the
19-count indictment.
The other
captains, or capos, arrested include Richard Ferrara, 59, and Theodore "Skinny Teddy" Persico Jr., 58, who is the nephew of the late Colombo
boss Carmine 'The Snake' Persico.
Colombo
soldier Michael Uvino, 56, and associates Thomas Costa, 52, and
Domenick Ricciardo, 56 - Vincent's cousin - were also booked.
'Everything we allege in this
investigation proves history does indeed repeat itself,' FBI Assistant
Director-in-Charge Driscoll said concerning the indictment. 'The
underbelly of the crime families in New York City is alive and well.'
'These
soldiers, consiglieres, underbosses, and bosses are obviously not
students of history, and don't seem to comprehend that we're going to
catch them. Regardless of how many times they fill the void we create in
their ranks, our FBI Organized Crime Task Force, and our law
enforcement partners, are positioned to take them out again, and again.'
According
to the indictment, the defendants and their co-conspirators committed
and are charged with a wide array of crimes – including extortion,
loansharking, fraud and drug trafficking – on behalf of the Colombo
organized crime family.
In 2019, the
family sought to divert more than $10,000 per month from the union's
healthcare system directly to the administration of the Colombo crime
family.
The Colombo family is one of
five major mafia organizations in the northeastern United States. The
others are the Genovese, Lucchese, Gambino and Bonanno families.
The latest indictments leave it unclear who remains to take control of the Colombo syndicate on the street.
The
entire administration of the Colombo crime family, including Russo and
Castellazzo, already pleaded guilty to a variety of mobster activities
in 2012.
The New York mafia has been
weakened by several blows in recent years, including arrests,
fratricidal struggles and competition from other criminal organizations,
but they are still considered active.
The
reputed boss of the Gambino clan, Frank Cali, was shot and killed
outside his home in the New York borough of Staten Island in March 2019.
A sweeping federal indictment has charged
the entire leadership structure of the Colombo crime family in a scheme
involving labor union shakedowns, extortion, loansharking, drug
trafficking and money laundering.
Reputed
Colombo street boss Andrew "Mush" Russo, 87, and his
underboss, Benjamin Castellazzo, 83, were scooped up by federal agents
and New York police, along with seven other members of the Colombo crime
family, a U.S. attorney spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Russo's consigliere, Ralph DiMatteo, 66, was also charged in the indictment but remains on the run, prosecutors said.
Among those charged was 75-year-old capo Vincent "Vinny Unions" Ricciardo, who was recorded
during a phone call in June threatening to kill a labor union official
if he didn't play ball, according to the 19-count indictment.
'I'll
put him in the ground right in front of his wife and kids, right in
front of his f***ing house,' Ricciardo says in the disturbing recording
described in the indictment.
'I'm not afraid to go to jail, let me tell you something, to prove a
point? I would f***ing shoot him right in front of his wife and kids,
call the police, f*** it, let me go, how long you think I'm gonna last
anyway?'
The other
captains, or capos, arrested include Theodore Persico Jr., 58, - the
nephew of the late Colombo boss Carmine Persico - and Richard Ferrara,
59.
Colombo
soldier Michael Uvino, 56, and associates Thomas Costa, 52, and
Domenick Ricciardo, 56 - Vincent's cousin - were also booked.
The
indictment against the crime family members lays out multiple schemes in
a long-running campaign to infiltrate and take control of a
Queens-based labor union and its affiliated health care benefit
program, and to a conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with workplace safety certifications.
Russo,
Castellazzo, DiMatteo, Ferrara, Persico, Uvino, and Vincent and
Domenick Ricciardo colluded with fellow defendants Erin Thompkins, 53,
and Joseph Bellantoni, 39, among others, to devise a scheme to launder
money from union healthcare contracts and payments through various
channels linked to Bellantoni, and eventually to the Colombo crime
family's leaders, according to the indictment.
'Today's
charges describe a long-standing, ruthless pattern by the
administration of the Colombo crime family, its captains, members and
associates, of conspiring to exert control over the management of a
labor union by threatening to inflict bodily harm on one of its senior
officials and devising a scheme to divert and launder vendor contract
funds from its health care benefit program,' Acting U.S. Attorney
Jacquelyn M. Kasulis said of the high-profile arrests.
'In
addition, for their own enrichment, the defendants conspired to engage
in extortionate loansharking, money laundering and fraud, as well as
drug trafficking.'
'This
Office and its law enforcement partners are committed to dismantling
organized crime families, eliminating their corrupt influence in our
communities and protecting the independence of labor unions.'
The
feds also arrested a soldier for the Bonanno family, 59-year-old John "Maniac" Ragano, who is charged with loansharking, fraud and
drug-trafficking offenses.
Ragano
is accused of leading a scheme to issue fraudulent workplace safety
training certifications to construction workers, according to the
indictment.
Rather than provide
candidates the proper training, Ragano and fellow defendant and business
partner, John Glover, 62, allegedly falsified federal paperwork,
indicating hundreds of workers completed mandatory safety courses that
they did not actually complete - or even attend.
Instead,
various defendants used Ragano's pseudo-schools to conduct meetings
involving Sicilian mafia members and to store stashes of illegal drugs.
Meanwhile
they generated cash using the schools in Franklin Square and Ozone Park
as 'certificate mills', charging $500 a pop for construction safety
training certificates without providing any training or testing,
according to the indictment.
The final
defendant, Vincent Martino, 43, was charged along with Vincent
Ricciardo, Ragano, Costa, and Glover with conspiracy to distribute
marijuana by transporting large shipments of the drug across state lines
in vehicles from New York to Florida.
'Everything
we allege in this investigation proves history does indeed repeat
itself,' FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll said concerning the
indictment. 'The underbelly of the crime families in New York City is
alive and well.'
'These
soldiers, consiglieres, underbosses, and bosses are obviously not
students of history, and don't seem to comprehend that we're going to
catch them. Regardless of how many times they fill the void we create in
their ranks, our FBI Organized Crime Task Force, and our law
enforcement partners, are positioned to take them out again, and
again.'
According
to the indictment, the defendants and their co-conspirators committed
and are charged with a wide array of crimes – including extortion,
loansharking, fraud and drug trafficking – on behalf of the Colombo
organized crime family.
The
document asserts that Russo, Castellazzo, and DiMatteo, as well
captains Persico, Ferrara and Vincent Ricciardo, initiated direct
threats of bodily harm, to control the management of the labor union
that they were targeting, and influenced decisions that benefitted the
family.
According
to the U.S. attorney's office, Colombo captain Ricciardo and his
cousin, associate Domenick Ricciardo, collected a portion of the salary
of a senior union official for roughly 20 years, threatening the
high-ranking official and his family with violence - and even murder -
if he did not comply with the family's demands.
In
2019, the family sought to divert more than $10,000 per month from the
union's healthcare system directly to the administration of the Colombo
crime family.
The
suspects were taken to federal court in Brooklyn Tuesday afternoon and
will appear before a judge via videoconference to face the slew of
charges against them.
Unlike the others, Vincent Ricciardo was arrested in North Carolina and will be arraigned in Charlotte, also Tuesday afternoon.
Russo, known as 'Mush,' is a cousin of
Carmine Persico, and first rose to prominence in the family when he was
promoted to acting underboss in 1973. Carmine Persico, nicknamed the
Snake, died in 2019.
Russo was
sentenced to 14 years in state prison in November 1986, until his
release in July 1994, under special parole conditions.
He
first ruled as street boss from 1996 to 1999, bringing the then-warring
Colombos back from the brink after a devastating civil war, but was
arrested again in 1996 by the FBI, who slapped him with racketeering
charges, claiming he illegally controlled and oversaw Long Island's
garbage hauling industry.
In August
1999, Russo was convicted of jury tampering and sentenced to 57 months
in prison, compounded by 123 months for both parole violation and his
involvement in the racketeering case.
After
his release in 2010 at 76 years old, Russo again took over the family
as street boss after his parole expired, succeeding the incarcerated
Ralph DeLeo, while Persico's son, Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico, served
as acting boss.
In 2011, he was
arrested again on racketeering charges, garnering a 33 month sentence.
He resumed his role as street boss on his release in 2013.
The
Colombo family is one of five major mafia organizations in the
northeastern United States. The others are the Genovese, Lucchese,
Gambino and Bonanno families.
The latest indictments leave it unclear who remains to take control of the Colombo syndicate on the street.
The
entire administration of the Colombo crime family, including Russo and
Castellazzo, already pleaded guilty to a variety of mobster activities
in 2012.
The New York mafia has been
weakened by several blows in recent years, including arrests,
fratricidal struggles and competition from other criminal organizations,
but they are still considered active.
The
reputed boss of the Gambino clan, Frank Cali, was shot and killed
outside his home in the New York borough of Staten Island in March 2019.
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