FEDERAL GRAND JURY INDICTS DEFENDANTS ON RICO CHARGES

Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Richard Brown, District Attorney, Queens County, New York; Raymond Kelly, Police Commissioner, New York City Police Department; Hector M. Pesquera, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami; Ken Jenne, Sheriff, Broward County Sheriff’s Office; Bruce Roberts, Chief, Fort Lauderdale Police Department; Roy Arigo, Chief, Coral Springs Police Department; and Andrew J. Scott, Chief, Boca Raton Police Department, announced today that a federal grand jury sitting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, returned a one-count indictment charging Ronald Trucchio, Kevin Antinuche, Gennaro Bruno, Edward Callegari, Robert Bucholz, Joseph Kondrotos, Darrin Sirrota, Valentino Nucci, Frank Roccaforte and Dave Prevete with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1962(d). If convicted of the charges, each of the named defendants faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

The indictment charges that, from in or about 1986 and continuing thereafter to and including the date of the return of the indictment, in the Southern District of Florida, in New York and elsewhere, the named defendants were employed by and associated with a criminal enterprise, that is, the Gambino Organized Crime Family of Las Cosa Nostra. The indictment charges that the named defendants conspired to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity which included murder, robbery, arson, extortion, kidnaping, drug trafficking, tapering with witnesses, retaliating against witnesses, credit card fraud, intrastate travel in aid of racketeering activity, interference with commerce by threats and violence, interstate transportation of stolen property, and thefts from interstate shipments.

The indictment charges that Ronald Trucchio is a “caporegima,” a mid-level boss, in the Gambino Organized Crime Family. Trucchio supervised the activities of a crew of violent criminal associates. The criminal crew included the named defendants and other unindicted co-conspirators.
The criminal crew based its activities in Ozone Park, Queens, New York, and began their participation in wide-ranging criminal conduct in or about the mid-1980s. The methods and means by which the criminal enterprise operated was as follows:

1) Trucchio, in his capacity as a caporegima in the Gambino Family, identified potential victims and planned the criminal acts which were perpetrated by the crew members. Trucchio mediated disputes which arose with other organized crime members and received tribute payments generated from the criminal activities of the crew. Kevin Antinuche and Gennaro Bruno were crew leaders who planned and participated in wide-ranging criminal conduct with the other crew members.

2) The criminal activity perpetrated by the enterprise included the organized theft of automobiles and automobile parts throughout the New York metropolitan area. The crew members stole specific cars and car parts on order and dismantled the stolen cars at several chop shops in the New York area. These chop shops were also used to facilitate credit card fraud, insurance fraud and robbery conspiracy. The crew members stole credit cards and account information from the U.S. mail and thereafter purchased consumer goods from merchants in New York and Florida. The crew participated in violent armed robberies of businesses and individuals during which victims were kidnaped and assaulted.

3) The members of the criminal crew traveled from New York to south Florida to commit robberies, drug trafficking, credit card fraud and illegal weapons sales. The crew transported the stolen property from Florida to New York. The criminal crew also engaged in numerous armed bank robberies in the New York area.

4) Trucchio directed the intimidation of government trial witnesses through the use of force and violence. The enterprise recommended lawyers to arrested crew members. They further arranged for incarcerated crew members to telephonically contact other members of the enterprise in order to insure the continued loyalty of the crew.

Mr. Jiménez stated, “The Department of Justice has a long-standing commitment to taking on organized crime. Those who conspire to prey on the honest, hard-working members of our community will pay the price for their actions. Law enforcement has brought these individuals to justice to answer for the broad scope of their criminal activity.”

District Attorney Brown stated, “The defendants are charged with having acted together for over two decades as a corrupt and lethal organized crime racketeering crew. They are alleged to have traveled the I-95 corridor turning Queens County and South Florida into plunder zones for their criminal activities. They are alleged to have broken the law with impunity, terrorized law abiding citizens and raked in millions of dollars of tax free criminal proceeds. But now, through the combined efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement, they have been indicted as racketeers and will be held accountable for the misery that they inflicted and the blood that they caused to be shed.”

Mr. Jiménez commended the investigative efforts of the District Attorney, Queens County, New York, the Police Commissioner, New York City Police Department; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, the Coral Springs Police Department, and the Boca Raton Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lawrence Lavecchio.