A US federal judge will release two men accused of being part of the Gambino crime family ahead of Thanksgiving because the 'younger generation of mafiosos aren't killing anyone'.
Diego
Tantillo, 48, and Angelo Gradilone, 57, appeared in Brooklyn Federal
Court on Tuesday dressed in khaki prison clothing for their bail appeal.
The two men were arraigned on racketeering charges on November 8 and were denied bond over fears they could flee the country, threaten witnesses and use facilities of the crime syndicate to help with intimidation.
But Judge Frederic Block said he would release Tantillo, from Freehold, New Jersey, and Gradilone, from Staten Island, on Wednesday, in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.
He did not agree they posed a flight risk and said this generation of mafia members are not as violent as those in the past.
Tantillo
and Gradilone were among 10 alleged mafia operatives arrested earlier
this month, in a coordinated US-Italian operation. Six suspected mafia
members were arrested in Italy.
At the time of their arrest, Breon Peace,
the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said they were
ruthless and violent.
'As alleged, for
years, the defendants committed violent extortions, assaults, arson,
witness retaliation and other crimes in an attempt to dominate the New
York carting and demolition industries,' said Peace.
'Today's
arrests reflect the commitment of this Office and our law enforcement
partners, both here and abroad, to keep our communities safe by the
complete dismantling of organized crime.'
Yet on Tuesday, Judge Block questioned
prosecutor Andrew Roddin on why Tantillo and Gradilone should not be
released on bail like the five other men accused of being part of the
Gambino crime family.
'This thing doesn't ring a bell with me,' he said. 'Posing significant conditions, they are not going anywhere.
'I
don't see a risk of flight certainly that can't be cured by bail
conditions.' He pointed to the fact that those accused of murder are
sometimes granted bail.
'In the past we
have let murderers go with bail,' Judge Block said. 'In this case there
were no murders. The younger generation of mafiosos aren't killing
anyone.'
Roddin, the prosecutor, argued
that they should be kept in jail. 'I think the violence is to consider
and the nature of the charges,' he said.
'It
is a serious culmination of criminal history and a possession of
weapons. 'There are numerous violent extortion attempts included in the
indictment.'
But the judge said: 'Even if you have a very heavy case, it doesn't mean it's lights out.'
Gradilone's
defense attorney Michael Schneider said: 'What this boils down to is
when the government throws mafia around that's the end of the argument.
'We're
not here to provide trial arguments. We haven't been handed discovery.'
Judge Block questioned the prosecution as to why stringent bail
conditions were not enough.
'What do
you want to do - short of shoot them?' he asked. 'I am not giving them
gold stars but they are presumed to be at liberty.
'They're
going to be a lot of things, a couple of million dollars at risk.' The
judge ruled that he would release the pair on bail in time for
Thanksgiving.
'I will let them out but I have to make sure we have stringent bail conditions,' said Block.
'We
all have human aspects. I am very direct and I don't see any risk of
flight and a proper bail package can ease concern about wealth.'
Tantillo's defense attorney Andrew Weinstein asked for bail to be set at $1 million for the defendants.
The
defense attorneys and prosecution are set to agree on a list of bail
conditions on Wednesday, before Tantillo and Gradilone are released.
Tantillo
and Gradilone's families were both in court for the appeal and remained
calm when the judge said he would release them ahead of Thanksgiving.
They gathered outside the courtroom and celebrated the ruling with hugs and warm embraces.
The Gambino men, from Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx, New Jersey, and Long Island, have allegedly been wreaking havoc in New York for the past 27 years.
The
infamous Italian-American crime syndicate made up one of the 'Five
Families' known for their racketeering, gambling and loansharking. The
10 defendants now variously face maximum sentences between 20 and 180
years' imprisonment.
Among the
defendants charged on November 8 were alleged US-based Sicilian Mafia
members Vito Rappa, 46, and Francesco Vicari, 46 - who is known as
'Uncle Ciccio.'
Vincent Minsquero, 36,
known as 'Vinny Slick'; Kyle Johnson, 46, known as 'Twin'; and the
alleged captain of the Gambino crime ring - 52-year-old Joseph Lanni -
were also charged with the slew of federal crimes.
Lanni
is known by nicknames 'Joe Brooklyn' and 'Mommino.' The four others
were Tantillo, James LaForte, Salvatore DiLorenzo, and Robert Brooke.
James
Smith, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI, said on November 8 as
the arrests were announced: 'These defendants learned the hard way that
the FBI is united with our law enforcement locally and internationally
in our efforts to eradicate the insidious organized crime threat.
'Those
arrested are alleged to have taken part in a racketeering conspiracy in
an attempt to control the carting and demolition industries in the
city.
'The FBI will continue to lead
the fight against organized crime and ensure that individuals willing to
cross the line face punishment in the criminal justice system.'
NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban also vowed to take down members of any organized crime group, wherever they operate.
He
said: 'Today's arrests should serve as a warning to others who believe
they can operate in plain sight with apparent impunity – the NYPD and
our law enforcement partners exist to shatter that notion.
'And we will continue to take down members of traditional organized crime wherever they may operate.'
According to the federal
indictment, Tantillo, Rappa, Vicari and Johnson 'engaged in a violent
extortion conspiracy relating to the demand and receipt of money from
John Doe 1, who operated a carting business in the New York City area.'
John
Doe 1 was threatened 'with a bat, setting fire to the steps to John Doe
1's residence, attempting to damage John Doe 1's carting trucks, and
violently assaulting an associate of John Doe 1.'
Images
included in the document show the metal bat discovered during a police
raid - and the stoop of the victim's home up in flames on September 22,
2020.
One of John Doe 1's business
associates was then attacked with a hammer - sending him to the hospital
on October 29, 2020. After he was assaulted, Kyle Johnson texted
Tantillo three thumbs up emojis for his 'work today.'
The
indictment states that Tantillo and Vicari were captured on
'judicially-authorized wiretaps discussing threats they made to John Doe
1 and John Doe 1's father- in-law.'
Rappa
stated that Vicari 'acted like the 'Last of the Samurai,' when he
picked up a knife and directed John Doe 1's father-in-law to threaten to
cut John Doe 1 in half in order to get him to make extortionate
payments, according to the documents.
When
the victim finally made a payment of $4,000 to Vicari, he and Rappa met
and sent Tantillo a photo of Vicari raising a small champagne bottle,
cheering in a toast.
The image is included in the indictment pages.
The documents also contain evidence that shows when the men were 'made' into the Gambino family.
One image shows Tantillo being inducted into the family on October 17, 2019, standing with Gradilone.
The
unsealed document also claimed that Tantillo, Brooke and Johnson
engaged in two separate violent extortion schemes of a demolition
company and its owners, known as John Does 2–4.
Their
motivation was over purported debts owed to Tantillo, and to a company
operated by Tantillo and Brooke, called Specialized Concrete Cutting
Corp. They demanded $40,000 from the owners - who did not cough up.
In
response, Brooke then violently attacked John Doe 2 on a street corner
in Midtown Manhattan, leaving him bloodied with a black eye, the
document alleges.
Alongside these
charges, some of the men are also accused of thieving and embezzling
employee benefit plans, including health insurance and pay checks, when
they did little or no work for the companies.
Tantillo
is accused of obtaining no-show and low-show jobs for Rappa, Gradilone
and Johnson. The document alleges: 'Through the no-show jobs, Gradilone
and Rappa received health care benefits, paid for by unions, to which
they were not entitled, in addition to receiving paychecks for work they
did not perform.'
The alleged
mobsters also intimidated people they believed 'ratted' on them
to police, which resulted in physical altercations inside swanky New
York City restaurants.
In a dramatic
scene from February 2021 described in the indictment, LaForte and
Minsquero assaulted John Doe 6 while Gambino captain Joseph Lanni sat
nearby.
That evening, John Doe 6, his
girlfriend, and their friends went to Asian restaurant Sei Less, on West
38th Street in Manhattan, where specialty cocktails cost $20.
As
the group was waiting to pay their bill, LaForte and Minsquero
approached their table, called John Doe 6 a 'rat,' and hit him in the
face with a bottle - before flipping their table over.
Drinks were sent flying and glass was shattered everywhere, witnesses said.
In
another incident on September 1, 2023, Lanni and Minsquero caused a
disturbance at Roxy's Bar and Grille, a restaurant in Toms River, New
Jersey.
The duo got into an argument
with another patron that led the restaurant's staff to ask them to leave
- and as they were escorted out, Minsquero damaged a painting and
punched a wall, and Lanni told the owner he would 'burn this place down
with you in it.'
Less than 20 minutes
later, video footage from a gas station across the street showed Lanni
and Minsquero purchasing a red gas container, walking to a pump, and
trying briefly to fill the container with gas.
Lanni was eventually dissuaded by Minsquero and a gas station attendant.
Police
were called to the restaurant, but four hours after the scene, the
owner and his wife went to get in their car to go home for the night,
around midnight.
The owner got into the
driver's seat of a car, while his spouse stood outside the vehicle
talking with the owner through the open driver's side window.
As
they were chatting, a man got into the front passenger door of the car,
punched the owner in the head, put a knife to his neck, and threatened
to kill him.
The spouse ran to help, but was punched and knocked to the ground by a second man.
Both
perpetrators then beat the spouse while she was on the ground. The man
with the knife slashed the owner's tires wand pointed the knife at the
spouse, before leaving on foot, the documents allege.
The
family, led by Salvatore D'Aquila in the early 1900s, made millions of
dollars by carrying out extortion, money laundering and fraud.
Frank
Cali was the last known leader of the group, and was killed in 2019. It
remains unclear who leads the syndicate at this time.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12777143/Gambino-family-associates-Thanksgiving-racketeering-bail.html