A mob lawyer admitted he carried orders from the jailed acting boss of the Genovese crime family – including a directive to whack an acting capo, authorities said yesterday in announcing the indictment of 32 Mafia associates.
The bust, which took down three Genovese capos and five “made” members, helps cripple the crime family’s vast and brazen criminal empire, prosecutors said.
“This deals an absolute body blow to both the membership and leadership of the Genovese family,” said Mark Mershon of the FBI.
In the boldest move, prosecutors said the jailed boss, Liborio “Barney” Bellomo, 49, used his corrupt attorney, Peter Peluso, to ferry various orders out of a federal prison, including one to rub out a fellow mobster for being disrespectful.
Peluso has agreed to cooperate with authorities, said U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia. As of yesterday, 30 of those charged had been taken into custody.
The three-year investigation – done in conjunction with the Westchester district attorney, Yonkers police and the NYPD – focused primarily on The Bronx, Westchester and East Harlem, revealing a hydra of crime, with members and associates willing to stop at nothing, prosecutors said.
In December, a family associate, Michael “Chunk” Londonio, who ran a major cocaine and steroid ring in The Bronx, shot two New York state troopers who had come to arrest him and was gunned down in a hail of police bullets.
“The public-safety issues literally jump off the page of this indictment,” Garcia said.
The indictment read like a laundry list of Mafia activities.
The most serious charge was levied against Bellomo – already serving 10 years for extortion – who could be put to death for ordering the hit in 1998 on a Genovese capo named Ralph Coppola while Bellomo awaited sentencing for ripping off a union. Prosecutors said they have not yet decided to seek the death penalty.
Bellomo was the family’s acting street boss after the late Vincent “Chin” Gigante was indicted in the early 1990s. Bellomo went to jail in 1996, but still wielded power with an iron fist from behind bars – allegedly ordering the hit two years later.
Meanwhile, on the street, Bellomo’s crew ran the drug ring, sold guns, shook down carting companies and bakeries and ripped off unions. Among those indicted are three of the crews’ capos – Anthony “Rom” Romanello, John “Buster” Ardito and Arthur Nigro.
Angelo Aquillino, the head of Local 102 of the Bakery, Confectioners and Tobacco Workers Union, also was charged for his alleged role in shaking down a bakery.