The last of the city’s mob bosses has been pinched.
The feds yesterday arrested reputed Bonanno boss Joseph Massino and his three top associates, charging them with murder, racketeering and other crimes, including the 1981 murder of a fellow mobster who allowed an FBI agent – the infamous “Donnie Brasco” – to infiltrate the family.
Prosecutors claimed in court papers that, until his arrest yesterday morning, Massino was the only boss of the city’s five major crime families who was not behind bars.
The slain mobster, Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano, unwittingly embraced FBI agent Joseph Pistone – who called himself “Donnie Brasco” in his famously successful five-year undercover operation to win trust and climb the ranks in the Bonanno family.
Napolitano, who headed the crew Pistone “served,” disappeared on Aug. 17, 1981 – one month after the G-man ended his assignment.
The feds say he was killed in retribution for his ties to Pistone – and they have a “high-ranking” witness who has linked Massino and acting capo Frank Lino to the crime.
The new charges solve the famous murder that for 22 years tantalized mob aficionados. Massino, 60, is one of four reputed wiseguys named in the newly unsealed indictment that charges them with a total of three murders and a host of racketeering crimes.
“Today’s indictment charges the sole boss of a major New York organized crime family who was still at liberty, demonstrating our commitment to eradicating the New York metropolitan area of the influence of organized crime,” U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said in announcing the charges that result from a four-year investigation by the FBI, the NYPD and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The wealthy and powerful alleged mob boss – who was picked up in his Howard Beach, Queens home yesterday morning and wore a black velour sweat suit to Brooklyn federal court – pleaded not guilty to racketeering, murder, loan-sharking and gambling.
“Mr. Massino is very confident of an acquittal. He states he’s not guilty of any of the crimes charged in the indictment, some of which go back 20 years,” said defense lawyer Matthew Mari.
Also arraigned by Magistrate Judge Joan Azrack were reputed underboss Salvatore Vitale and alleged capo Daniel Mongelli. Lino is already behind bars.
In another historic twist, the arrests come after the feds managed to flip four mobsters, including acting underboss Richard “Shellackhead” Cantarella and reputed capo Frank Coppa, sources say.
“The Bonanno family was an incredibly resilient family. There has never been a Bonanno soldier who has ever cooperated” before this, said James Walden, a former assistant U.S. attorney.
Lawyers who represented the four mobsters before their decision to work with the government have since received letters relieving them of their duties.
Larry Bronson, attorney for Coppa, said his client disappeared from Fort Dix prison on Nov. 13.
“A 400-pound capo doesn’t vanish into thin air – draw your own conclusions,” Bronson said.
Cantarella is believed to have fingered Vitale in the 1992 murder of New York Post employee Robert Perrino, a Bonanno associate who was at the heart of a no-show job scheme.
The feds say the slaying was motivated by fears that Perrino was cooperating with the feds.
And a high-ranking mob rat who witnessed the murder of Napolitano is poised to testify that he was shot in a house, while Massino and others waited outside as “backups,” court papers filed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Greg Andres show.
Napolitano’s body was found in a swamp in Staten Island a year after the hit.
The Bonannos enjoyed a long spell without prosecutions until 2000 when consigliere Anthony Spero was convicted of racketeering murder. Three indictments followed in rapid succession last year.
“Rocked by the Donnie Brasco infiltration, the Bonannos, already one of the most insular and secretive families circled the wagons, closed ranks and became obsessively discrete,” said Kevin Donovan, FBI assistant director in charge.
“The Bonanno family became a tough nut to crack. It has taken over two decades to get the goods on Massino for the Sonny Black murder. But justice delayed is not only always justice denied.”