The feds say there was nothing funny about this Pineapple Express.
FBI agents in New York and Italian authorities on Tuesday broke up a trans-Atlantic scheme to smuggle cocaine in shipments of frozen fish and pineapples as part of a plot to establish a local outpost of the infamous southern Italy ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate.
Seven suspects were busted in New York and another 17 were nabbed in Italy, where the feared ‘Ndrangheta is based in Calabria, the southern region that forms the “toe” of that country’s geographical “boot.”
The various American defendants are charged with a laundry list of crimes, including scheming to import heroin into the U.S. and selling more than a kilo of the drug to an undercover fed last year, as well as a massive money-laundering scam to hide the proceeds of drug and weapons sales, and also to finance the smuggling of coke from Guyana to Italy.
Brooklyn US Attorney Loretta Lynch said the schemes were part of a “growing trend on the part of the’Ndrangheta to expand beyond the Calabria area,” but that the arrests had “put an end to the Ndrangheta’s attempts to get a foothold” in New York.
The Mafia-like organization is known for extreme violence that recently included beating a rival mob boss with iron bars and tossing him into a pig sty where he screamed while being eaten alive.
A 15-count indictment unsealed Tuesday identified the suspects as: ‘Ndrangheta member Raffaele “Lello” Valente, Gambino associate Franco Lupoi, Bonanno associate Charles “Charlie Pepsi” Centaro, Dominic Ali, Alexander Chan and Christos Fasarakis, all of Brooklyn, and Jose Alfredo “Freddy” Garcia of New York.
They were rounded up early Tuesday and were awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn Federal Court on various charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms offenses, the feds said.
None would comment as they were walked from Federal Plaza in Manhattan for the ride to court.
“The defendant Lupoi sought to use his connections with both ‘Ndrangheta and the Gambino crime family to extend his own criminal reach literally around the globe. Today, thanks to the vigilance and sustained cooperation of the Department of Justice and its law enforcement partners in Italy, the ‘Ndrangheta’s efforts to gain a foothold in New York have been dealt a lasting blow,” Lynch said.
The charges unsealed Tuesday in Italy revealed how the ‘Ndrangheta operated for decades in Calabria in localized clans – known as ‘ndrine – based on family ties, the feds said.
Lupoi’s father-in-law, Italian defendant Nicola Antonio Simonetta, was identified as a member of the Ursino clan of the ‘Ndrangheta.
Simonetta traveled to Brooklyn in 2012 and met with Lupoi and an undercover FBI agent, who secretly recorded the pair plotting to ship heroin and cocaine to the US from the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, a notorious hotbed of ‘Ndrangheta criminal operations.
The indictment said Lupoi schemed with another Italian defendant and ‘Ndrangheta leader, Francesco Ursino, to peddle heroin and coke.
During a pair of operations in Italy conducted by the FBI and Italian authorities, Lupoi and Ursino sold more than 1.3 kilograms of heroin to an undercover FBI agent for distribution in the US, the feds said.
In New York, Lupoi, Chan and Garcia sold the undercover agent a kilogram of heroin, the documents revealed.
Lupoi also hatched a plot to send 500 kilograms of cocaine – obtained from Mexican drug cartels – hidden in shipments of fish and pineapples from Guyana to Calabria.
Lupoi also paid off a corrupt port official in Gioia Tauro to guarantee delivery of the drugs to New York, the feds said.
That scheme began to unravel when vessels coming from the same Guyanese shipping company were seized in Malaysia with more than $7 million in cocaine concealed in pineapples and coconut milk.
Lupoi also worked with Valente, who sold an illegal silencer and sawed-off shotgun to the FBI undercover agent at the Royal Crown Bakery in Bensonhurst, the documents said.
In a conversation caught on an Italian wiretap, Valente boasted that he had a crew of heavily-armed wiseguys in New York, and that their headquarters was as secure as “Fort Knox.”
The Roman Catholic Valente also spoke of his devotion to St. Michael the Archangel, whom he called the“patron saint” of the ‘Ndrangheta.
If convicted, Lupoi, Chan and Garcia face a maximum sentence of life behind bars. Ali, Centaro and Fasarakis face a maximum of 20 years in prison, and Valente faces up to 10 years in prison.