Feds bust mob associate for Brooklyn bank robbery
FBI agents today arrested a reputed mob associate in New York City on federal bank robbery charges.
Gary Fama, an ex-con with a string of prior arrests, was taken into custody by a team of FBI agents during an early morning raid, officials said.
Fama was suspected of operating with another reputed mob associate, Jack Mannino, in the Dec. 29 robbery of a Capitol One Bank on New Utrecht Avenue in Brooklyn, a source said.
In that incident, the robbers brandished a weapon, and one vaulted the counter to fill a sack with several thousand dollars, a FBI report says.
"They were in the bank 60 to 90 seconds. It was very quick," said FBI spokesman Peter Donald said after the hold-up in December.
Mannino - who earned the nickname the “Seven-Second Bandit” - is still being sought by the FBI, which is offering a reward for his capture.
The feds believed that Mannino was responsible for nearly two dozen heists in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island during a five-month period in 1999.
Mannino was released in July after serving more than a decade behind bars for the 1999 robberies.
Fama is scheduled to be arraigned later today in Brooklyn federal court on bank robbery charges, officials said.
This is not the first time that Fama has been suspected of holding up a bank, court records show.
In 2000, FBI agents who suspected that Fama was involved in robbing a bank robbery procured a warrant to search his apartment, records show.
The agents discovered a loaded revolver hidden under a pillow and a 12-gauge shotgun hidden between the mattress and the box spring of his bed, court records show.
Fama was sentenced to serve 51 months in prison in that earlier case, after being convicted in Brooklyn federal court of being a felon in possession of a firearm, records show.
After completing his sentence for the weapons charges, Fama again was arrested on several occasions and charged with various drug possession offenses and for failing drug tests while on probation.
A judge later sentence Fama to return to prison for eight additional months for violating his probation, records show.
Gary Fama, an ex-con with a string of prior arrests, was taken into custody by a team of FBI agents during an early morning raid, officials said.
Fama was suspected of operating with another reputed mob associate, Jack Mannino, in the Dec. 29 robbery of a Capitol One Bank on New Utrecht Avenue in Brooklyn, a source said.
In that incident, the robbers brandished a weapon, and one vaulted the counter to fill a sack with several thousand dollars, a FBI report says.
Mannino - who earned the nickname the “Seven-Second Bandit” - is still being sought by the FBI, which is offering a reward for his capture.
The feds believed that Mannino was responsible for nearly two dozen heists in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island during a five-month period in 1999.
Mannino was released in July after serving more than a decade behind bars for the 1999 robberies.
Fama is scheduled to be arraigned later today in Brooklyn federal court on bank robbery charges, officials said.
This is not the first time that Fama has been suspected of holding up a bank, court records show.
In 2000, FBI agents who suspected that Fama was involved in robbing a bank robbery procured a warrant to search his apartment, records show.
The agents discovered a loaded revolver hidden under a pillow and a 12-gauge shotgun hidden between the mattress and the box spring of his bed, court records show.
Fama was sentenced to serve 51 months in prison in that earlier case, after being convicted in Brooklyn federal court of being a felon in possession of a firearm, records show.
After completing his sentence for the weapons charges, Fama again was arrested on several occasions and charged with various drug possession offenses and for failing drug tests while on probation.
A judge later sentence Fama to return to prison for eight additional months for violating his probation, records show.
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