Ethermac|10 alleged Gambino crime family members and associates arrested on racketeering, extortion charges

Ten members and Ethermacassociates of the Gambino crime family were arrested for various offenses related to the organization’s attempts to dominate the New York City carting and demolition industries, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

The defendants were named in a 16-count indictment Wednesday and charged with racketeering conspiracy, extortion, witness retaliation, and union-related crimes. The charges, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, are part of a coordinated operation in which Italian law enforcement arrested six organized crime members and associates on mafia association and other criminal charges.

"As alleged, for years, the defendants committed violent extortions, assaults, arson, witness retaliation and other crimes in an attempt to dominate the New York carting and demolition industries," said United States Attorney Breon Peace. "Today’s arrests reflect the commitment of this Office and our law enforcement partners, both here and abroad, to keep our communities safe by the complete dismantling of organized crime."

Among the arrested include Joseph Lanni, 52, an alleged captain in the Gambino organized crime family; Diego Tantillo 48; Angelo Gradilone, 57; James LaForte 46; Vito Rappa, 46; Francesco Vicari, 46; Salvatore DiLorenzo, 66; Robert Brooke, 55; Kyle Johnson, 46; Vincent Minsquero, 36. 

“These defendants learned the hard way that the FBI is united with our law enforcement locally and internationally in our efforts to eradicate the insidious organized crime threat,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge James Smith in a statement.

The defendants are accused of committing crimes throughout New York and New Jersey from 2017 through 2023, prosecutors said. They face variable maximum sentences between 20 and 180 years in prison. 

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Members assaulted worker, sent photos to others in the industry

According to the federal report, Gambino soldier Tantillo became embroiled in a financial dispute with the owners of a demolition company and planned a “violent” hammer assault with Johnson. Prosecutors said Tantillo, Johnson, and Brooke engaged in two separate violent extortion schemes targeting the demolition company and its owners over purported debts owed to Tantillo and a company operated by Tantillo and Brooke.   

Prosecutors said the men attacked a dispatcher at the company, leaving them bloody and seriously injured. Officials said photos of the victim were then sent to various people in the carting and demolition industries. 

Federal officials said Brooke also violently assaulted one of the company’s owners on a street corner in midtown Manhattan.  

Members and associates were charged with additional crimes. Lanni and Minsquero are accused of coordinating an attack on restaurant owners in New Jersey, including a charge for assaulting a woman at knifepoint, prosecutors said.

LaForte, who was previously convicted of a felony, was found in May to be in illegal possession of a firearm.

Lanni’s attorney, Frederick Sosinsky, told The Associated Press his client is innocent.

“Joe Lanni did not commit any crime charged in this indictment nor any uncharged act to which the Government makes reference,” he told the AP. “Until now, he has never even been accused of any act of violence.”

Tantillo, Johnson, and Rappa were also charged with conspiracy to extort money from an unnamed man who operates a carting business in the New York City area. 

Prosecutors said the man was threatened with a bat and the steps to his residence were set on fire. The defendants attempted to damage the man’s carting trucks and violently assaulted one of his associates, according to federal officials. 

Fraud and union-related embezzlement

Prosecutors said the men were also involved in a series of schemes to steal and embezzle from unions and employee benefit programs in the demolition and carting industries. DiLorenzo, according to prosecutors, provided Rappa with a "no-show" job at his demolition company so Rappa could collect paychecks and union health benefits.

Tantillo, DiLorenzo, and others also conspired to rig bids for lucrative demolition contracts in New York City, prosecutors add. Officials said their companies exchanged bidding information in an attempt to secure a project on Fifth Avenue. 

“[The] arrests should serve as a warning to others who believe they can operate in plain sight with apparent impunity – the NYPD and our law enforcement partners exist to shatter that notion,” said New York Police Department Commissioner Edward A. Caban in a statement. “And we will continue to take down members of traditional organized crime wherever they may operate.”