Victim or accomplice?Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn asserted yesterday
that Carmine Ragucci, the chairman of the influential Conservative Party in
Staten Island, was a co-conspirator in making payoffs to the Mafia while
running a Staten Island waterfront company. They had previously described
him as an extortion victim only. Read more here.
Sal Magluta, a world-class launderer, is sentenced to 205 years on
laundering and other charges On Jan. 22, a federal judge ruled Sal Magluta,
one of the original South Florida cocaine cowboys, must pay a $63 million
fine for laundering drug money and spend 205 years in prison on money
laundering and other charges. Read more here.
Smuggler gets 2.5 years A Russian man was sentenced to 30 months in prison
for smuggling 98 pounds of Russian caviar into the United States without
the required permits, federal prosecutors said yesterday. Read more here.
http://organizedcrime.about.com/library/weekly/aadailynews.htm#0206gotti
It's well known most criminals are authoritarian assholes.
http://statenislandusa.com/html/molinaro.html
Check out james,what a sweetheart,he could be a libertarian.
Staten Island POL Paid The Mob.
By MURRAY WEISS and ANDY GELLER, New York Post
June 6, 2002 -- EXCLUSIVE
Organized-crime investigators are taking a close look at extortion payments
the Staten Island Conservative Party chief made to mobsters while he ran
one of the largest container terminals on the New York waterfront, The Post
has learned.
Carmine Ragucci, president of the Howland Hook Container Terminal, paid the
Gambino crime family $2,000 a month for protection while he ran the Staten
Island facility, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.
Federal, state organized-crime and waterfront investigators are taking a
look at Ragucci's payments as they continue to untangle the web of intrigue
uncovered Tuesday, when 17 Gambino wiseguys, including new don, Peter
Gotti, were indicted on waterfront extortion and labor-racketeering charges.
Probers also are asking questions about a lucrative trucking contract
Ragucci gave.
The sources said investigators additionally are trying to determine if
companies made under-the-table payments to do business at the terminal and
whether a large chunk of the millions the facility generated lined people's
pockets - including those of the mob.
Glenn Yost, a former detective who used to drive NYPD Chief of Detectives
William Allee, told investigators he made monthly rental payments to
Ragucci in cash and never got receipts, they said.
The indictment said that between April 2000 and August 2001, Frank Scollo,
head of Local 1814 of the International Longshoremen's Union, personally
collected "thousands of dollars in extortion money" from the head of the
Howland Hook terminal.
The head was not named in the indictment, but the law-enforcement sources
identified him as Ragucci, saying he was caught on tape making the payments
- which went from Scollo to Gambino captain Anthony Ciccone and then to Gotti.
Probers subsequently approached Ragucci, wanting to know why - as head of
the Staten Island Conservatives - he didn't inform authorities he was the
victim of an extortion plot and whether he would cooperate in the future,
the sources said.
In response, Ragucci referred them to his lawyer, they said.
Neither Ragucci, who left Howland Hook in February, nor his lawyer returned
calls seeking comment.
Looking into the operations of the container terminal, investigators also
found that Yost rented space at the facility for a company he ran that
imported bottled water from Italy.
When cops asked Yost to produce receipts, he said he didn't have any
because he paid the $1,400 monthly rent in cash, the sources said.
When Ragucci was questioned about the money, he referred the investigators
to his lawyer, they said.
Yost, an unsuccessful Republican and Conservative candidate for a Staten
Island Assembly seat in 1998, did not return phone calls.
The sources said that all contracts granted by Ragucci are being eyed by
probers.
Topping their list is a no-bid trucking contract.
After being shut for 10 years, the container terminal reopened in 1996
after the city spent millions to dredge the shore to allow larger ships to
dock.
In 1998, Gov. Pataki announced a $23 million expansion project to bring a
rail link to the terminal.
A Staten Island Conservative Party source described Ragucci and Pataki as
"best of friends."
But Pataki's spokesman, Michael McKeon, said the governor was not a
personal friend of Ragucci's but knew him from politics.
http://www.americanmafia.com/News/6-6-02_POL_Paid_The_Mob.html
Yeah yeah,but at least they stopped the dumping at fresh kills.
