11 Members of New York's Infamous Colombo Crime Family Charged by Federal Prosecutors
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a 19-count indictment on September 14, 2021, charging ten members and known associates of the Colombo Crime Family and one from the Bonanno Crime Family.
Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Michael Driscoll, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's New York field office, presented extensive charges including labor racketeering, extortion, money laundering conspiracy. The charged include Andrew “Mush” Russo, the Colombo boss, Benjamin “Benji” Castellazzo, the underboss, and Ralph DiMatteo, the consigliere, and capos Theodore Persico, Jr., Richard Ferrara and Vincent Ricciardo, soldier Michael Uvino, and associates Thomas Costa and Domenick Ricciardo. Ralph DiMatteo initially evaded arrest but surrendered to federal agents in Manhattan on September 17, 2021.
The charges illustrate a prolonged effort by the crime families to seize control of a Queens-based labor union, confiscate a portion of a labor union senior official's salary (referred to in the DOJ press release as John Doe #1) and threaten to harm their family for nearly 20 years. Further, the defendants were extorting the labor union's health fund affiliation to develop policies that their family profited from, including manipulating vendor contracts that siphoned more than $10,000 each month directly to the Colombo family as of late 2019.
"Today's charges describe a long-standing, ruthless pattern by the administration of the Colombo crime family…of conspiring to exert control over the management of a labor union," Acting U.S. Attorney Kasulis affirmed, "…threatening to inflict bodily harm on one of its senior officials and devising a scheme to divert and launder vendor contract funds from its health care benefit program."
Vincent Ricciardo led John Doe's continued intimidation; a cousin stepped in during Ricciardo's mid-2000s imprisonment on federal racketeering charges. The extortion scheme came to light with thousands of hours of wiretapped calls, records provided by a witness, and law-enforcement surveillance. Federal law enforcement repeatedly captured Ricciardo and family associates; however, it only exasperated the intimidation of John Doe and homicidal threats of the labor union official and his family in retribution.
John Ragano, a Bonanno family soldier, his business partner John Glover, and Domenick Ricciardo, were also indicted. Federal Prosecutors said the Bonanno scheme operated two schools that claimed to provide training courses and certifications for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's ("OSHA"). The family falsified U.S. Department of Labor documents. In truth, the schools hosted the New York's Five Families meetings and acted as safe houses for contraband.
Earlier this year, 11 members of the Gambino Crime Family pleaded guilty on charges of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, according to the DOJ.
"Everything we allege in this investigation proves history does indeed repeat itself. The underbelly of the crime families in New York City is alive and well," stated Assistant Director in Charge Driscoll, "These soldiers, consiglieres, underbosses, and bosses are obviously not students of history, and don't seem to comprehend that we're going to catch them."
The defendants each face up to 20 years in jail.