He wanted to live like a wiseguy. Now he will — by spending the next two decades in a federal pen.
A reputed Gambino crime family associate called “the ultimate mob wannabe” got 23 years today for such crimes as setting up a childhood pal to be killed for control of a pot-smuggling racket.
Todd LaBarca, 41, was awaiting induction into the Mafia last year when he was busted, instead.
He was so enamored with the gangster life that he talked about recruiting his teenage son and the boy’s friends into his crew, said Manhattan federal prosecutor Elie Honig.
“Chasing the mob life,” Honig said, “you turn on your friends, if they don’t turn on you first, you abandon your family, and you throw away your life and the lives of others.”
Judge Richard Berman, lamented that more than 60 of LaBarca’s friends and relatives had packed the courtroom to see him off.
“The only conclusion one can draw is that the criminal behavior is facilitated through this support,” the judge said.