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Local man an alleged mob boss
(by Megan Burrow - February 13, 2008)
John “Jackie the Nose” D’Amico, a longtime resident of Hillsdale, was one of 62 defendants charged Thursday, Feb. 7 in a wide-reaching federal indictment. D’Amico, 73, allegedly moved up the ranks of the Gambino crime family from soldier to captain and then finally to acting boss in 2005 when the former head of the family, Arnold “Zeke” Squitieri, 71, of Englewood Cliffs was indicted on racketeering charges.
According to a press release issued by the United States Attorney’s office, D’Amico was charged along with alleged acting underboss Domenico Cefalu, consigliere Joseph Corozzo, and other high ranking members of the Gambino family, the nation’s most powerful Mafia organization. Members and associates of the Genovese and Bonanno organized crime families were also charged in the indictment.
The indictment is the result of a lengthy joint investigation by local, state and federal law enforcement. Charges include racketeering conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, extortion, theft, and gambling, some of which stretch back over more than three-decades.
Each member of the crime family has been charged with “racketeering conspiracy and multiple crimes of violence, namely extortion and extortion conspiracies relating to the construction industry which carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison on each count.”
According to information in the press release, the Gambino family was involved in extorting money from a cement company in Staten Island, one of many extortion related rackets at construction sites in New York and
New Jersey . The
Liberty
View
Harbor site in Jersey City and the NASCAR site in
Staten Island are two of the sites noted in the indictment.
“The charges announced today are the result of a coordinated law enforcement initiative by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials,” United States Attorney Benton J. Campbell stated in the press release. “Today we serve notice that anyone who aspires to a position in organized crime will meet the same fate. We will not rest until we rid our communities and businesses of the scourge of organized crime.”
United States District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis has been assigned to the case.
Megan Burrow's e-mail address is burrow@northjersey.com.
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