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

Friday, May 13, 2011

6 Staten Islanders sentenced in wide-ranging mob case


Some of the mobsters extorted victims, beating one with a baseball bat and another into unconsciousness. 
Others loansharked, ran illegal gambling rackets or trafficked in sex involving a 15-year-old girl.
Six Staten Islanders were among nine members and associates of the Gambino crime family sentenced in Manhattan federal court on convictions for wide-ranging criminal activities, said Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Sentenced yesterday were Thomas Orefice, 34, of Huguenot; Dominick DiFiore, 31, of Willowbrook; Anthony Manzella, 32, of Pleasant Plains; Michael Scotto, 25, of Charleston; Michael Scarpaci, 35, of Prince's Bay, and Keith Dellitalia, 34, of Great Kills.
Orefice, a Gambino soldier, received the most time -- eight years in prison -- and was ordered to forfeit $100,000, stemming from convictions for racketeering conspiracy, including extortion, loansharking and gambling, said prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the crew used violence to collect debts.
Orefice, DiFiore and Dellitalia beat an extortion victim with a baseball bat, Orefice and DiFiore assaulted another victim on the street, while Scotto beat a victim unconscious to collect an extortion payment for DiFiore, said authorities.
In the summer of 2009, Orefice, DiFiore, Manzella, Thomas Scarpaci, 36, of Bay Terrace, and Anthony Vecchione, 41, of Dongan Hills, plotted to extort the owner of a Staten Island financial services business, prosecutors said.
DiFiore was sentenced yesterday to 92 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $25,000 for convictions on extortion conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute narcotics.
Manzella was sentenced to four years behind bars for convictions on racketeering conspiracy, including mail fraud and gambling. Scotto received 37 months in prison for racketeering, including extortion and gambling, Michael Scarpaci got 18 months for racketeering, including gambling and Dellitalia was sentenced to 21 months for extortion.
The six defendants sentenced yesterday were among nine borough residents nabbed in April of last year in a mob sweep.
Previously convicted and sentenced were Richmond resident Steve Maiurro, 32, to 21 months for sex trafficking; Thomas Scarpaci, to 30 months for racketeering, including extortion and gambling, and Vecchione, to 15 months for extortion.
Prosecutors said Maiurro and others advertised a prostitution ring on Craigslist and other Web sites.
Between 2008 and 2009, the women were driven to Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Staten Island to have sex with clients, while mobsters pocketed half the money paid to the girls.
Feds said one of the girls was 15 years old at the time.
The girls also were made available for sex to gamblers at a weekly high-stakes poker game run by mobsters.
Mob boss Daniel Marino, 70, of Brooklyn, also arrested in April 2010, was previously sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to forfeit $1.25 million.
Prosecutors said Marino admitted to green-lighting the 1998 hit on his nephew, New Springville resident Frank Hydell, 31, in front of the former Scarlett's nightclub in South Beach. Hydell had been co-operating with authorities.
Also sentenced yesterday was Gambino soldier, Onofrio Modica, 47, of Manalapan, N.J., to 100 months in prison.
In August 1987, Modica's motorcycle was used in connection with the drive-by murders of James DiGuglielmo and Richard Sbarra on Staten Island, prosecutors said.
Modica and other Gambino members also tried to tamper with jurors in the 1992 trial of mob don John Gotti in Brooklyn federal court, said prosecutors.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/6_staten_islanders_sentenced_i.html


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