Now he’s “Jailbird Smurf.”
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced mobbed-up garbage carter Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco to a year in jail for being a ringleader of a multifamily organized-crime effort between 2009 and 2012 to control New York and North Jersey’s waste-hauling industry.
“I’m not a good speaker but I regret this happened,” a choked-up Franco told Castel as some family members and friends sitting in the courtroom weeped.
“I regret hurting my family and this court,” added Franco, who was dressed in a stylish grey suit that made him look more like the late John “Dapper Don” Gotti than the mushroom-dwelling Smurf character from the popular 80s cartoon he was nicknamed after.
Manhattan federal Judge Kevin Castel’s showed some leniency as prosecutors recommended just under three years in prison for Franco, 78.
However, that didn’t prevent him from scolding the reputed Genovese wiseguy about his crimes, which included having his underlings steal garbage containers and hundreds of tons of cardboard that was resold for big bucks.
“This is plain old theft,” Castel said. “This is the kind of stuff we learned as little children that you can’t do.”
Franco, of Ramsey, NJ, agreed to forfeit $2.5 million to the government as part of his plea deal.
Franco’s lawyer, Michael Critchley had argued the 78-year-old geriatric goodfella’s “advanced age,” laundry list of health ailments and need to care for his ill wife warranted him serving a non-prison sentence.
As the Post previously reported, Franco wanted to do community service at a New Jersey church as a substitute for the prison time he agreed to when pleading guilty last November to racketeering and other criminal charges.
However, Assistant US Attorney Brian Blais said Franco’s “advanced age hasn’t prevented him from breaking the law” by cheating customers, competitors and “ensnaring” others into his criminal enterprise.
Critchley said Franco would not appeal the judge’s ruling, which he called a “fair and just resolution.”
Franco admitted being part of in a scheme where rival Mafia families banded together to circumvent official efforts to clean up the trash business — and used strong-arm tactics to shake down the owners of legitimate companies and secretly assume ownership of their operations.
Reputed members and associates of the Gambino, Genovese and Luchese organized-crime families allegedly put aside their differences to run a “property-rights” system in which they divvied up customers and companies under their control.
Heading the effort was Franco, who had been barred from the trash business in New Jersey because of past criminal convictions. He admitted running his piece of the operation out of Rockland County, NY.