Updated news on the Gambino, Genovese, Bonanno, Lucchese and Colombo Organized Crime Families of New York City.

Monday, July 20, 2009

REPUTED MOBSTER 'MIKEY CIGARS' WENT ON LAM TO AVOID JUSTICE: US ATTORNEY


Reputed Genovese capo Michael "Mikey Cigars" Coppola packed up his wife and spent nearly 11 years as a fugitive to avoid what is happening to him today -- his fate being put in the hands of a federal jury.

As jurors prepared to begin deliberating, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Dennehy told the panel not to be fooled by Coppola's claims that he was framed for a 1977 murder and ran from the law to be with his wife.

"He ran because he didn't want to face a jury like you. He hid because he didn't want to face a jury like you," Dennehy said in Brooklyn federal court. "This case is about justice ... it's not about whether Michael Coppola would rather be on the beach with his wife."

Coppola and his wife, Linda, fled the feds in August 1996, when he came under suspicion for the long-unsolved murder of mob associate Johnny "Coca Cola" Lardiere.

During their life on the lam, the couple used numerous aliases to travel between apartments in San Francisco and the Upper West Side of New York, where they were captured by the FBI in March 2007.

Both pleaded guilty to conspiring to harbor a fugitive last year.

Coppola, 63, is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison if he is convicted of racketeering charges, including murder, a three-decade extortion scheme targeting waterfront unions and conspiracy to possess fake identification.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07202009/news/regionalnews/brooklyn/reputed_mobster_mikey_cigars_went_on_lam_180385.htm


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