Two reputed Gambino degenerates -- capo Alphonse Trucchio and associate Christopher Colon -- pleaded guilty yesterday "to extortion charges related to a racketeering scheme that the feds say stocked mob-controlled New York strip clubs with smuggled eastern European women" as reported by Robert Gearty for the Daily News.
The pair were among seven reputed Italian mobsters charged last November with working with suspected Russian gangsters in the alleged operation.
The flesh trade long has been a lucrative racket for the Gambino and other Mafia familes in New York.
Trucchio and Colon further pleaded guilty yesterday with reputed soldiers Michael Roccaforte and Anthony Moscatiello in connection with indictments brought in January 2011 involving the Gambino family as part of a national sweep against the Mafia according to a U.S. Justice Department press release. Seven other defendants in the Gambino prosecutions previously have entered guilty pleas according to the feds: "Gambino Family Associates Salvatore Tortorici, Frank Bellantoni, Michael Kuhtenia pled guilty earlier this week. Gambino Family Captain Louis Mastrangelo and Associates Frank Roccaforte, Michael Russo, and Anthino Russo pled guilty last year." The named defendants "all pled guilty to racketeering charges," and "various defendants also pled guilty to narcotics trafficking, extortion, and other crimes."
Six defendants copped to being part of the Gambino's multi-million dollar drug racket, and the feds say that "from the late 1980s through 2010" reputed capo Trucchio and others oversaw a "large-scale narcotics distribution operations, which were primarily located in Queens, New York," and "numerous drug suppliers, wholesalers, and street dealers operated under the authority and protection of the Gambino Family, in exchange for paying the Family a portion of their profits."
Charges remain pending against eleven other defendants, including reputed consigliere Joseph Corozzo, in the Gambino cases.
There is one articile stating that 4 of the Gambinos face life in prison, which I call BS. There is no way they face life after pleading guilty, otherwise what's the purpose of plea bargaining?
Posted by: Clinton Fussell | 02/18/2012 at 09:54 AM