Bonanno Soldier gets an additional 37 months in prison for forcing loanshark victim to strip naked

Bonanno Soldier gets an additional 37 months in prison for forcing loanshark victim to strip naked

  March 24, 2025    Dapper_Don

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Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, John Ragano, also known as “Bazoo,” a member of the Bonanno organized crime family, was sentenced by United States District Judge Hector Gonzalez to 37 months in prison for extortionate collection of credit in connection with a $150,000 loan.  The sentence imposed today will be served following the completion of Ragano’s 57-month sentence for the conspiracy to commit extortionate collection of credit of the same victim.  Additionally, as part of the sentence, Ragano was ordered to pay the government $3,000 in forfeiture.  Ragano was convicted of the charge in October 2024 following a four-day jury trial.

John J. Durham, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and Leslie R. Backschies, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the sentence.

“Today’s sentence punishes Ragano’s blatant disregard for the law, even while under court supervision for crimes brazenly carried out within the federal courthouse,” stated United States Attorney Durham.  “This prosecution represents my Office’s steadfast commitment to combatting the Mafia in our district.”

“Despite previous arrests and detention, John Ragano tormented his victim to make weekly exorbitant loan payments and enforced humiliating methods when faced with resistance,” stated Acting FBI Assistant Director in Charge Backschies.  “His actions reflected his apathy to the criminal justice system as he repeatedly attempted to extort his victims in the midst of active legal proceedings. Today’s verdict emphasizes the FBI’s intolerance of the mob’s historical inclination to utilize coercive and threatening tactics to fulfill their greedy demands.

In early 2021, the defendant Ragano loaned the victim $150,000 in cash and required the victim to make interest payments of approximately $1,800 a week.  These payments did not reduce the principal of the $150,000 loan.  On September 14, 2021, Ragano was arrested in connection with the extortionate loan to the victim, as well as separate schemes to traffic marijuana and commit fraud.  After Ragano was released on bond from the Metropolitan Detention Center in December 2021, he continued to try to collect the $150,000 loan from the victim while under pretrial supervision.  He did so by approaching the victim in-person at status conferences held at the federal courthouse, and by directing another individual (Individual #1) to contact the victim.  On November 28, 2022, Ragano pleaded guilty to conspiring to issue the extortionate loan to the victim.  However, in 2023, despite his previous guilty plea, ongoing court supervision, and sentence to 57 months’ imprisonment in connection with his previous guilty plea as to the 2021 loan, Ragano continued to extort the victim to collect payments on the 2021 loan, which resulted in a subsequent indictment for extortionate collection of credit and harassment of a witness.

As proven during Ragano’s October 2024 trial, on March 25, 2023, the victim recorded a meeting with Individual #1, who explained that Ragano wanted the entire amount of the loan repaid and that “nobody’s looking for anybody to get hurt.” A week later, on March 31, 2023, Individual #1 told the victim that Ragano was “a little upset” that the loan was outstanding.  On July 5, 2023, the victim went to a used auto parts yard where Ragano worked to discuss the loan.  Unbeknownst to Ragano, the victim recorded the meeting.  The victim told Ragano that he was going to stop repaying the loan. Ragano accused the victim of cooperating with the government and demanded that he remove all his clothes. Ragano stated: “Okay, well then take off your f--king s--t right now my man.  Take off your f--king pants right now, lemme see, I want to see.”  At Ragano’s insistence, the victim complied and took off all his clothing. At that point, two men at the business walked up behind Ragano, one of whom was holding metal tools.  Ragano then demanded the victim pay the money the defendant believed he was owed, telling him, “You owe me my f---king money, let’s see how you’re gonna do when I get out.”  Despite being forced to strip naked, the victim was still able to record the confrontation, including Ragano’s parting words, “I’ll see you when I get out tough guy…Don’t forget I know where you’re at now.”

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Devon Lash and Andrew D. Reich are in charge of the prosecution with the assistance of Paralegal Specialist Kristina Kim.  Assistant United States Attorney Tanisha Payne of the Office’s Asset Recovery Section is handling forfeiture matters.

The Defendant:

JOHN RAGANO (also known as “Bazoo”)
Age:  62
Franklin Square, Long Island

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-50 (HG)

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/bonanno-crime-family-soldier-sentenced-37-months-imprisonment-extortionate-collection 

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Jury finds Bonanno Soldier guilty of extortion and threatening turncoat debtor

Jury finds Bonanno Soldier guilty of extortion and threatening turncoat debtor

  October 12, 2024    Dapper_Don

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A Bonanno crime-family member who threatened to “slap the s–t out” of a turncoat and then forced him to strip butt naked to find a wire was found guilty of extortion Friday by a Brooklyn federal jury.

John Ragano, a hulking solider nicknamed “The Maniac,” was convicted following a four-day trial where the mobster was caught on tape threatening to beat down Vincent Martino, a mob informant who owed him $150,000 in illegal loans.

The July 2023 recording was captured just five days before Ragano was sent to prison on a separate racketeering conviction — when the portly gangster met Martino, who accused Ragano, 62, of being a rat in the back of A&G Auto Dismantlers in Ridgewood.

The Mafioso can be heard acting dumbfounded by Martino’s accusation before he accuses the mob associate of wearing a wire and demanding him to drop his trow.

“Then take off your f–king shit right now, man. Take off your f–king pants right now,” a raging Ragano says in the recording.

“Let me see — I want to see. I don’t have a wire on me either.”

Martino testified Wednesday that his pants were around his ankles and his shirt as the made man searched for a wire and continued lacing him, telling him he was going to “f–king slap the shit out of [him]” if he ratted him out to the feds.

“You owe me my f–king money. Let’s see how you’re going to do when I get out,” Ragano seethes in the recording.

The strip search failed to find the hidden microphone, which was attached to Martino’s clothes, prosecutors said.

Martino, a mob associate, said that he noticed two men were approaching him from behind with what appeared to be a tire iron and another metal weapon so he grabbed his pants and ran to his car to call the feds — as Ragano’s last words on the recording warn Martino that he knows where he lives.

Martino was one of the key witnesses at trial after he found himself $275,000 in the hole to the mob after taking a series of loans out when he fell on hard times.

He said he began cooperating with the feds to dig himself out of the debt hole to the mob.

Ragano, who’s serving a nearly five year sentence for the racketeering, was acquitted of extortion conspiracy, witness harassment and witness tampering.

“The defendant’s extortion of a victim while on pre-trial release, carried out even in the sanctity of the federal courthouse, is an affront to the criminal justice system and a glaring example of this Bonanno mobster’s flagrant disrespect for the law,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement. “With today’s verdict, the jury has delivered a clear message that the rule of law will prevail over extortionate threats.”

The wiseguy will be sentenced at a later date and faces up to 20 years in prison.

https://nypost.com/2024/10/11/us-news/bonanno-wiseguy-convicted-of-threatening-forcing-turncoat-to-strip-naked-over-debt/

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Bonanno Soldier forced loan sharking victim to strip naked

Bonanno Soldier forced loan sharking victim to strip naked

  October 09, 2024    Dapper_Don

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A Bonanno crime-family soldier called “The Maniac” forced one of his loan-sharking victims to get naked to see if he was wearing a wire, barking, “Take off your f–king pants right now!” prosecutors said Tuesday.

John Ragano, 62, allegedly made associate Vincent Martino strip while threatening to “slap the s–t out of him” if he was wearing a wire for the feds during a meeting July 5, 2023, just five days before Ragano was to be sent to prison in a Brooklyn federal racketeering case.

“OK, well, then take off your f–king s–t right now, my man. Take off your f–king pants right now, lemme see, I want to see,” a raging Ragano allegedly instructed Martino at his office when the underling denied being wired up.

Martino, who apparently had a wire on his clothes, followed Ragano’s instructions — and somehow still managed to secretly record the whole meeting anyway, even as he stood naked while two other men stood behind him with a crowbar and another with a tire iron, federal prosecutors have said.

“John Ragano forced a man who owed money to strip naked in a garage in Queens and threatened to slap the s–t out of him,” federal prosecutor Andrew Reich said at the beginning of Ragano’s trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Another mob associate, Broadway-show-tunes singer-turned-criminal Andrew Koslosky, 66, testified that he collected loan payments from Martino for Ragano — who he painted as a hair-trigger-tempered “big fella.

“He made it clear that people didn’t want to cross him,” Koslosky said.

During Kolosky’s testimony, jurors were shown a photo of how he recorded payments in an envelope named “Italian” — while another photo showed stacks of cash amounting to $6,200 that was paid by Martino in April 2021.

“When he put his fist down on the desk, the whole room shook,” Koslosky said of Ragano, who is charged with extortion, harassing a witness and witness tampering.

Martino — who went into the marijuana trafficking business with Ragano — had taken a $150,000 loan from Ragano in February 2021 and he agreed to pay $2,050 in interest per week until the loan was paid off in full in cash, according to prosecutors.

But Martino stopped making payments at some point, and he began working with the feds in March 2023, when he agreed to start recording any conversations he had with Ragano and his debt collectors, Reich said.

Martino went on to make a slew of $1,000 payments after cooperating with the feds, but in June 2023, he was told by one of Ragano’s guys that the Mafioso wanted to discuss “an issue” with the loan in person, prosecutors alleged.

Martino then met with Ragano that July 5 and told Ragano that he wanted to stop repaying the loan.

Both men accused each other of working for the feds before Ragano made him strip off his clothes, according to court papers.

The alleged shakedown came just five days before Ragano was to report to prison for nearly five years after pleading guilty to extortion charges in November 2022.

Martino testified late Tuesday that he resorted to taking “street loans” — slang for taking cash from the Mafia — during the pandemic in 2020 after falling on hard times when his construction company failed to take off in 2018.

He racked up $125,000 in debt from members of the Colombo crime family before turning to the Bonannos for another $150,000 because he was falling behind on debt payments, Martino testified.

Martino wound up owing the mob $275,000, according to prosecutors.

Both Ragano and Martino were named in a major racketeering case that took down the Colombos — including boss Andrew “Mush” Russo — related to the infiltration of a Queens labor union in 2021.

Martino pleaded guilty in the same case in December 2022 to conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Ragano, also known by the nickname “Bazoo,” had previously served a 10-year prison stint after he was convicted in state court for kidnapping in 1999.

Martino will continue testifying Wednesday as he details how he snitched on Ragano.

Ragano’s lawyer, Ken Womble, admitted to jurors that Ragano was a member of the Mafia while downplaying the intimidation tactics alleged by prosecutors in his opening statements.

“This is a case about money amongst mobsters. That’s the whole story of this case,” Womble said, adding that “asking for a loan to be paid back is not a crime at all.

https://nypost.com/2024/10/08/us-news/bonanno-wiseguy-john-ragano-forced-loan-shark-victim-to-strip-naked-feds/

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Bonanno Soldier accused of extortion while awaiting sentencing

Bonanno Soldier accused of extortion while awaiting sentencing

  February 08, 2024    Dapper_Don

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A Bonanno crime family wiseguy didn’t let his arrest in a union shakedown scheme prevent him from committing more extortion and witness tampering, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

John “Bazoo” Ragano, a Bonanno crime family soldier with a criminal history spanning more than two decades, was awaiting sentencing on federal fraud and extortion charges when he extorted a loansharking victim between November 2022 and last July, prosecutors allege.

The indictment against Ragano, filed Feb. 1 in Brooklyn Federal Court, offers scant details about the allegations against him, except to say he engaged in harassing witnesses and witness tampering as well as extortionate collection of credit.

Ragano, 61, also known as “Maniac,” is currently serving a nearly five-year sentence in a low-security federal prison in Loretto, Pa. — after he was busted in a sweeping 2021 mob takedown that netted the entire leadership of the Colombo crime family.

His part of the scheme involved operating two bogus workplace training schools, in Franklin Square, L.I., and Ozone Park, Queens, that sold Occupational Safety and Health Administration certification cards for $500 a pop.

He slashed the tires of a woman he thought might tell law enforcement officials what he was up to, then bragged in a recorded call about how “there’s nothing they can do to me,” according to court filings by prosecutors.

“If she calls the cops and tells them that? I’ll just tell them, ‘Hey, OK, put me in jail, what’s the problem?’ … What are they gonna give me, three years? I’ll do that with my c–k on the bars,” he boasted.

He also took part in a $100,000 loansharking scheme with several Colombo members, and conspired to traffic pot in New York and Florida, prosecutors said.

Ragano’s criminal history dates back to at least 1999, when he was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for kidnapping after he robbed an Ozone Park accounting firm and held several workers there hostage at gunpoint, according to court filings.

He was also sentenced to more than four years in prison after a 2014 racketeering conspiracy case involving the late Vincent Asaro, a Bonanno capo who gained notoriety after he was charged in the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport depicted in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas.” In a bombshell 2015 verdict, Asaro was found not guilty of taking part in the $6 million robbery.

Asaro died at age 88 in October.

Ragano has yet to be arraigned in the latest extortion case. Defense lawyer Joel Stein, who represented him in the 2021 case, said he hadn’t heard about the new indictment.

“This is all news to me,” he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/bonanno-mobster-accused-of-extortion-while-awaiting-sentencing-in-earlier-nyc-case/ar-BB1hVObB

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Feds take down entire Colombo family administration in sweeping indictment

Feds take down entire Colombo family administration in sweeping indictment

  September 14, 2021    Dapper_Don

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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.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9990007/Colombo-crime-boss-arrested-feds-one-famed-five-families-fraud-corruption-raid.html

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Bonanno family mobsters negotiate plea deals

Bonanno family mobsters negotiate plea deals

  October 03, 2014    Dapper_Don

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They may have watched the legendary Lufthansa heist in “Goodfellas” — but these Bonanno hoods want no part of it in real life.

Four of the five reputed Bonanno crime-family bigs swept up in a January bust that netted the famous heist’s alleged mastermind are negotiating plea deals to settle their cases, according to a Brooklyn federal court filing.

That would leave the accused Lufthansa point man — capo Vincent Asaro — all alone to face trial for a slew of raps including murder and racketeering that could put him behind bars for life.

Lawyers for three of Asaro’s co-defendants — acting capo Jack Bonventre, soldier John Ragano and acting street bos/underboss Thomas Di Fiore — argued that publicity surrounding the 1978 JFK robbery was too prejudicial and that their clients were involved in more mundane crimes with no connection to the famous heist.

They successfully had their cases severed from Asaro’s and are now hammering out deals, according to a filing by DiFiore’s ­attorney, Steve Zissou.

Asaro’s son, Jerome, is also part of the “global settlement” currently being negotiated, according to the filing.

Vincent Asaro was depicted in Nicholas Pileggi’s book “Wiseguy” — on which the movie “Goodfellas” was based — as the gangster who took the hapless “Spider” character to get patched up after he was shot in the foot by Tommy DeSimone (portrayed by Joe Pesci in the film).

http://nypost.com/2014/10/03/four-of-the-five-bonanno-crime-family-bigs-are-negotiating-plea-deals/

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Secret informant in 1978 Lufthansa heist is cousin of busted Bonanno family captain

Secret informant in 1978 Lufthansa heist is cousin of busted Bonanno family captain

  January 30, 2014    Dapper_Don

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Vincent Asaro is walked out of Manhattan Federal Court after being charged in infamous $6 million 1978 Lufthansa heist.

He has turned on the Bonanno family — and now his family has turned on him.

The mob informant who brought down the last suspected conspirator in the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist is a 66-year-old former Long Islander, the Daily News learned Wednesday.

Gaspare "Gary" Valenti was a confidant of his cousin, jailed Bonanno family capo Vincent Asaro, busted last week after his relative implicated him in the $6 million Kennedy Airport robbery — and a 1969 murder.


Vincent Asaro at Brooklyn Federal Court in 1966.

The informant’s children were “totally outraged” to learn their father had flipped to work for the feds, a source familiar with Valenti told The News.

But a source indicated his decision was influenced by Asaro’s harsh treatment of Valenti across their decades in organized crime.

Valenti also saved another relative from an Asaro murder plot in the mid-'80s, court papers said.

John "Bazoo" Ragano was one of the five people arrested last week in 1978 heist.

Valenti’s criminal past indicates he’s worked as a con man with involvement in welfare fraud, insurance fraud and trying to peddle phony artwork in Las Vegas to a law enforcement undercover.

During a 1995 Las Vegas court appearance, Valenti said he never advanced beyond the 12th grade. His father was in construction, helping to build homes in Ozone Park — including the one where the body of murder victim Paul Katz was buried.

Valenti implicated Asaro and Jimmy "The Gent" Burke, the mastermind of the Lufthansa heist, in the 1969 strangulation of Katz. Burke thought Katz was an informant.


Jerome Asaro has been implicated as conspirator in Lufthansa heist.

Gerald McMahon, a lawyer for the jailed Asaro, declined comment on Valenti.

The mob informant was cited repeatedly throughout the court documents charging Asaro, and apparently wore a wire to record some conversations with his 78-year-old cousin.

Court documents last week said Valenti had pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy.

Valenti hopes to follow fellow Lufthansa informant Henry Hill into the federal witness protection program.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/vincent-asaro-mob-informant-cousin-article-1.1596299#ixzz2rtFmD0rW

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Feds pick up 5 Bonanno mobsters for the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK

Feds pick up 5 Bonanno mobsters for the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK

  January 23, 2014    Dapper_Don

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The FBI escorts Vincent Asaro (center), considered a ruling member of the Bonanno crime family, Thursday. He was arrested in connection to the 1978 heist at Kennedy Airport. He also faces a murder charge.

A top Bonanno family “Goodfella,” in a bust 35 years in coming, was nabbed Thursday in the $6 million Lufthansa Airlines heist at the center of Martin Scorsese’s mob classic.

FBI agents rounded up old-school mobster Vincent Asaro and four other suspects, including several top-echelon family members, before their expected Thursday afternoon arraignment in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Asaro, considered a ruling member of the crime family, was arrested with his son Jerome Asaro, capo Thomas Di Fiore, John Rigano and Jack Bonventre on various charges of racketeering, extortion, robbery and solicitation to murder.

Jerome Asaro is walked out of Federal Plaza in Manhattan on Thursday.

The quintet was ratted out by a cousin of Vincent Asaro, authorities said. The informant — a participant in the heist — even wore a wire after the feds reopened the investigation in June 2013.

Asaro and his son plotted to whack the cousin because they suspected that he was a snitch, authorities said.


Thomas Di Fiore (center) was also one of five men charged in Thursday's wide-ranging indictment.

“These ‘Goodfellas’ thought they had a license to steal, a license to kill and a license to do whatever they wanted,” said FBI Assistant Director George Venizelos.

“It may be decades later, but the FBI’s determination to investigate and bring wise guys to justice will never waver.”

The new investigation began after the informant steered the feds to a secret burial site in the backyard of an Ozone Park home owned by the late James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke, the mastermind of the airport heist.

Jack Bonventre (left), another suspect charged in Thursday's indictment.

The victim, Paul Katz, was killed in 1969. Court papers indicated that Vincent Asaro and Burke used a dog chain to strangle Katz in the basement — and buried him beneath the cement floor.

Burke, immortalized in the classic film “Goodfellas” by actor Robert De Niro, died of cancer in 1996 while serving a 20-year murder sentence.


John Ragano (left) was charged with four others Thursday in a wide-ranging indictment that covered a number of crimes and offenders.

But his greatest hit was the well-planned robbery of the Lufthansa cargo terminal on Dec. 11, 1978, with a haul of nearly $6 million in cash and jewelry.

Each bandit was supposed to receive $750,000 in cash, but most were slain or stiffed out of their windfall, court papers indicated.

Among the co-conspirators was mob informant Henry Hill, whose story became the inspiration for the book “Wiseguy” and the Scorsese movie.

A 1978 Lufthansa cargo heist at Kennedy Airport resulted in a $6 million theft of cash and jewelry.

“We never got the right money, what we was supposed to get, we got f----- all around,” Vincent Asaro complained to the informant. “Got f----- all around. That f------ Jimmy (Burke) kept everything.”

Burke, an associate of the Luchese crime family, did not live in the house on 102nd Road where the remains were discovered.

Heist organizer James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke was portrayed by Robert De Niro (second from left) in the film ‘Goodfellas.’

He allegedly asked the Bonanno mobsters to join in the hit as a favor.

Vincent Asaro faces life behind bars if convicted, while his co-defendants all face up to 20 years in prison.

Vincent Asaro’s rap sheet includes 21 arrests since 1957 for crimes including rape, bank robbery, kidnapping and assault. The charges, in many of the cases, were later dismissed.

Even at the spry age of 76, Asaro punched a man in the face at Belmont Park racetrack, kicked another man, and challenged a crew of men associated with the Gambino family outside a social club in Ozone Park.

In 2005, after a group of young men he confronted outside a bodega said they wouldn't fight an old man, Asaro ripped off his shirt and glasses and said, “Let's go.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/feds-charge-mobster-1978-lufthansa-heist-kennedy-airport-article-1.1588523

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