Feds urge leniency for Colombo cop killer turned rat
Federal prosecutors are going to bat for the ex-Colombo hit man who came forward to solve the 1997 gangland rubout of NYPD cop Ralph Dols.
Joseph “Joey Caves” Competiello, a mob soldier who pleaded
guilty to five murders as part of his government agreement, is facing life in
prison when he is sentenced next month by Judge Brian Cogan.
But the feds are urging leniency for the turncoat who helped
break the crime family and bring Dols' killers to justice.
"Competiello's cooperation initiated a chain of events
which resulted in the cooperation of other Colombo family members and
associates which led to the arrests and ultimately the convictions of nearly
every inducted member of the crime family," Assistant Brooklyn U.S.
Attorney Elizabeth Geddes stated in court papers.
"Joe's cooperation was the beginning of the end of the
Colombo family," another law enforcement source added.
Before Competiello was flipped by FBI special agent John
Fallon, the Dols' murder had been exhaustively investigated by the NYPD and the
feds, but was a cold case
Then Competiello revealed the participants in the killing,
including then capos Thomas Gioeli and Dino Calabro - Calabro cooperated soon
after and implicated former acting boss Joel Cacace who wanted the cop whacked
because he had married Cacace's ex-wife.
Ralph Dols was gunned down outside his home in 1997.
"Prior to Competiello's cooperation not a single lead
implicated Competiello or the Gioeli crew in the murder," Geddes noted.
In a sad footnote to the case, Cacace, Gioeli and accused
shooter Dino Saracino were acquitted of the young cop's slaying. Competiello
and Calabro testified that they did not know Dols was a cop when they were
tasked with gunning him down outside his Brooklyn apartment building.
Sources said Dols' family understood that it was necessary
for the feds to make deals with the mob rats who participated in the murder in
order to bring their accomplices to justice.
Competiello has served more than six years in prison since
he was arrested and it is doubtful that the judge will give him time served,
sources said.
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