Reputed New England Mafia capo and long-time FBI informant Mark Rossetti is on trial with a co-defendant for a burglary charge but the presiding judge ruled that prosecutors "won't be able to detail to jurors the alleged honcho's mob ties" as reported by Matt Stout for the Boston Herald: "Suffolk Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke noted that Massachusetts lacks a criminal organization, or RICO, statute, and that in taped conversations between Rossetti and others, there was no evidence Rossetti was handing down orders as a mafia captain."
Rossetti was charged in October 2010 by the Massachusetts Attorney General with running a 30-member crew involving drug trafficking, gambling and loansharking, and he further is a suspect in six murders according to a law enforcement source.
Ten defendants have pleaded guilty, and seven of those "have received sentences of probation" as reported by Mike Beaudet for WFXT.
A six-person team from the Department of Justice currently is investigating the FBI's Boston field office over its use of Rossetti as an informant as reported by Michele McPhee for WCVB. Last November state prosecutor Dean Mazzone "said that the FBI was not truthful with investigators about Rossetti's informant status when the 18-month sting began with wiretaps at the reputed Mafiosi's East Boston headquarters, The Bunker."
Rep. Stephen Lynch of South Boston says the "FBI's own guidelines should have stopped agents from using [Rossetti] as an informant" as reported by Mike Beaudet for WFXT: "Rossetti's reputation for and record of violence as well as his history of drug use were two things Lynch says should have disqualified him from being brought back as an informant."
Rossetti still faces trial on charges from the October 2010 indictment beyond the burglary case.
