Several members of the high-ranking Colombo crime family, including 87-year-old Chief Andrew “Mush” Russo, and an 87-year-old low-ranking chief Benjamin “Benji” Castellazo, were arrested. Tuesday in the early hours NYPD and FBI in connection with a broad scheme of labor layout and extortion fraud.
The 19-charge indictment released Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn imposes a total of 14 defendants, including 10 members and associates of the Colombo crime family, with multiple schemes in a lengthy effort to infiltrate and take the control of a Queens union-based workforce and its affiliated health care program.
They are also accused of conspiring to commit fraud in connection with occupational safety certifications. In the case a family soldier of crimes Bonanno has also been appointed. Russo faces charges of cheating, as do Castellazo and consigliere Ralph DiMatteo. The alleged captains of the Colombo crime family, Theodore Perisco, Jr., Richard Ferrara and Vincent Ricciardo are accused of swindling, along with welder Michael Uvino and associates Thomas Costa and Domenick Ricciardo.
John Ragano, of the Bonanno crime family, is charged with felony loan-sharing, fraud and drug trafficking, officials said. Twelve of the 14 defendants were arrested Tuesday in New York and New Jersey and are scheduled to be tried in Brooklyn federal court later that day. A 13th defendant was arrested in North Carolina and will be tried there, while the 14th defendant, Dimatteo, remains at large.
According to the indictment, members of the Colombo crime family and alleged conspirators extorted union leadership by threatening bodily harm to force decisions that would benefit the crime family. Since 2001, one of the captains and his cousin allegedly received part of the salary of a senior union official, threatening to hurt both him and his family.
Beginning in late 2019, the defendants allegedly expanded the extortion effort to force this official and others from the union and its affiliated health fund to select vendors for contracts that were associated with the Colombo family. Defendants sought to divert more than $ 10,000 a month from health fund assets to the Colombo family administration, according to prosecutors.
Among other examples, prosecutors say Ricciardo was recorded on the phone on June 21 threatening to kill the union official if he failed to comply.
He explained that the labor official knows: “I will put him on the ground right in front of his wife and children, right in front of his house, laugh at everything you want, friend I’m not afraid to go to jail, let me me to tell you something, to prove a point? I would shoot him in front of his wife and children, call the police, fk, let me go, how long do you think I will last anyway? “, says l ‘accusation.
“Today ‘s charges describe a long – standing ruthless pattern on the part of the administration
of the Colombo crime family, their captains, members and associates, of conspiring to exercise control over the management of a union threatening to cause bodily harm to one of its senior officials and designing a scheme to divert and launder contracted funds of the health care program vendor, “said Jacquelyn Kasulis, an acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.” In addition, for their own enrichment, the defendants conspired to participate
loan exchange, money laundering and fraud, as well as drug trafficking. “
Bonanno’s alleged soldier, Ragano, is accused of leading a plan to issue fraudulent occupational safety training certificates to construction workers. Instead of providing the training, he and a business partner allegedly falsified federal paperwork, indicating that hundreds of workers completed mandatory safety courses that they did not actually complete, according to the indictment.
Instead, several defendants used Ragano’s “schools” to hold meetings with members of the Sicilian mafia and to store illegal drugs and fireworks.
The shared loan charges against four defendants stem from his alleged involvement in extending and collecting extorted loans totaling $ 250,000 to an unnamed person. They collected a weekly interest rate of 1.5%. Three of those four defendants and two others were also charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana by transporting large shipments from New York to Florida.
Two of them were also charged with offenders previously convicted of possession and transportation of ammunition.
“Everything we allege in this investigation shows that history does repeat itself
to himself. The belly of crime families in New York City is alive. These soldiers, advisers, deputy chiefs and chiefs are obviously not students of history and they don’t seem to understand that we are going to catch them, ”Michael Driscoll, the FBI’s deputy chief of staff, added on Tuesday.
NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea described the indictment as another example of the department’s long-term commitment to working with its partners to enforce the law to hold members accountable for organized crime.
The information of the defendants’ lawyers was not immediate.