Feds bust mobbed up Queens restaurant for importing cocaine
The mobbed-up owners of an Italian restaurant in Queens and their adult son are charged with importing 55 kilos of cocaine in a shipment of vegetables, authorities said Wednesday.
Gregorio Gigliotti; his wife, Eleonora, and their son, Angelo, own several businesses tied to the drug trafficking, including Cucino a modo Mio on 108th St. in the Little Italy section of Corona, according to a criminal complaint.
The Gigliottis allegedly are associates of the ’Ndrangheta organized crime group in Italy and their neighbor is reputed Genovese capo Anthony "Tough Tony" Federici, who owns the nearby Park Side Restaurant, prosecutors Nicole Argentieri and James Miskiewicz stated in court papers.
“We prepare each dish with fresh ingredients” is the motto of Gigliotti’s restaurant, where federal agents had a wiretap on the phone and listened in on conversations between Gregorio, 58, and a co-conspirator identified as “Armando” in Costa Rica allegedly arranging a drug deal last summer.
“Manifests indicated that beginning on or about Sept. 16, 2012, to the present, the defendants imported a total of 37 cargo containers of ‘fresh cassava,’ a vegetable also commonly known as ‘yucca,’ from Costa Rica,” stated Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Daniel Lamarca.
Angelo, 34, and Eleonora, 54, allegedly traveled to Costa Rica last August, where they were overheard discussing a piece of luggage containing $400,000 in cash, which was supposed to be delivered to Armando.
The feds later seized separate shipments of yucca arranged by Gregorio Gigliotti in October and December — one containing 40 kilos of cocaine and the 15 kilos in the other.
Gregorio Gigliotti cooked up some cinematic drama in an intercepted phone call with his son in which he discusses carrying out a real-life killing of a deadbeat — just like in the film “Casino” where two brothers are beaten to death in a cornfield and then buried.
“Eleonora is a party to certain of these conversations and in response to Gregorio’s threats simply tells (him) not to discuss his plans over the phone,” the prosecutors contend.
Agents found $100,000 and six guns in a safe in the restaurant.
The drug-dealing family members face 30 years to life in prison if they are convicted of the charges. They were held without bail at their arraignment Wednesday in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Gregorio was wearing a white, long-sleeved jersey with “Italia” printed on the back.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/queens-restaurant-owners-busted-drug-smuggling-feds-article-1.2145905
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