LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that eight defendants, including a Capo in the Genovese Organized Crime Family, three
Genovese Soldiers, and a Genovese associate who is the brotherin-
law of the former Acting Boss of the Family, were sentenced in
Manhattan federal court today for murder conspiracy, extortion,
narcotics distribution, firearms trafficking, and fraud offenses.
These defendants were originally charged in Manhattan
in a 42-count indictment (the “Indictment”), which charged 34
defendants, including an Acting Boss and various members and
associates of the Genovese Organized Crime Family of La Cosa
Nostra, with wide-ranging racketeering crimes and other offenses
spanning more than a decade, including murder, violent extortions
of various individuals and businesses, labor racketeering,
obstruction of justice, narcotics trafficking, money laundering,
and firearms trafficking. The Indictment targeted factions of
the Genovese Organized Crime Family based in the Bronx, East
Harlem, and Westchester, and was the result of a Federal
investigation that began in 2003, and a related investigation by
state authorities in Westchester County that began in 2005. All
34 defendants pleaded guilty.
Today, United States District Judge LEWIS A. KAPLAN
sentenced PASQUALE DELUCA, a/k/a “Scop,” a Soldier in the
Genovese Family, to five years imprisonment following his May 18,
2007 guilty plea to conspiring to murder RALPH COPPOLA.
According to the felony Information to which DELUCA pleaded
guilty and statements made during his guilty plea:
In September 1998, the then-Acting Boss of the Genovese Family,
FRANK SERPICO, a/k/a “Farby,” with the consent of other leaders
of the Family, authorized the murder of COPPOLA, a Soldier in the
Genovese Crime Family. Subsequently, in September 1998, at
SERPICO’s instruction, DELUCA met with COPPOLA in the Bronx.
Following that meeting, COPPOLA was murdered by members and
associates of the Genovese Organized Crime Family. Judge KAPLAN
ordered that DELUCA’s five-year sentence run consecutively to a
21-month sentence imposed by United States District Judge ALVIN
K. HELLERSTEIN for a separate charge of conspiracy to commit
extortion of Local 14, the Operating Engineers Union, to which he
pleaded guilty.
* * *
Judge KAPLAN also sentenced RALPH BALSAMO, a/k/a “the
Understaker,” a Soldier in the Genovese Family to 97-months’
imprisonment. BALSAMO’s crimes — to which he pleaded guilty —
included narcotics trafficking, firearms trafficking, extortion,
and union-related fraud.
Genovese Capo ARTHUR NIGRO was also sentenced today to
to 51 months’ imprisonment following NIGRO’s plea to extortion
charges on May 18, 2007. NIGRO admitted to using threats of
violence and economic harm in an attempt to force an individual
to rent a particular commercial property to NIGRO and others at a
below-market price.
Judge KAPLAN sentenced GERALD FIORINO — the brotherin-
law of LIBORIO BELLOMO, the former Acting Boss of the Genovese
Family — to 15 months’ imprisonment for his role in an extensive
fraud scheme relating to the carting industry. As part of that
scheme, FIORINO admitted to illegally funneling money, disguised
as consulting fees, to BELLOMO from a company, Du-Rite Carting
based in the Bronx, during the 1990s. In addition, FIORINO was
ordered to forfeit $400,000 in criminal proceeds.
CHARLES SALZANO, a soldier in the Genovese Family, was
sentenced to 37-months’ imprisonment for loansharking; JOSEPH
PISACANO, a Genovese Family associate, was sentenced to 4 months’
imprisonment for operating an illegal gambling business; and
ANTHONY NEGRI and WALTER GALIANO were sentenced to one year of
probation for submitting false and incomplete information to a
federal grand jury.
Mr. GARCIA praised the efforts of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the New York City Police Department, and the New
York State Police in this investigation.
Assistant United States Attorneys MIRIAM E. ROCAH,
JONATHAN S. KOLODNER, and ERIC SNYDER are in charge of the
prosecution.
07-235 ###
