John Gotti’s Grandson Arrested for Choking Girlfriend Before Prison Term

John Gotti’s Grandson Arrested for Choking Girlfriend Before Prison Term

  June 04, 2026    Dapper_Don

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The enduring, volatile legacy of the Gambino crime family lineage took another dramatic turn on Long Island, New York. Carmine Gotti Agnello, the 40-year-old grandson of the legendary "Dapper Don" John Gotti, was taken into police custody following a violent domestic incident. The high-profile arrest occurred just days before he was scheduled to self-surrender to federal authorities to begin serving a 15-month prison sentence for running a multi-million dollar pandemic-era relief scam.

For decades, the Gotti name has been synonymous with the heights of the New York underworld and the subsequent glare of media scrutiny. This latest interaction with law enforcement reminds the public that while the structural power of the old-school multi-family syndicates has diminished, the familial legal troubles surrounding their descendants remain a fixture in New York courts.

🚨 The Long Island Assault: Inside the June 2026 Nassau County Arrest

The Domestic Dispute in East Norwich

According to official press advisories and court documents filed by the Nassau County Police Department, officers responded to a 911 domestic disturbance call on the night of Tuesday, June 2, 2026, at approximately 10:20 p.m. The incident took place inside Agnello’s residential property located on Mill River Road in the affluent enclave of East Norwich, Long Island.

[Verbal Argument Inside Home] ──► [Escalation to Physical Attack] ──► [Victim Escapes & Contacts Cops]
                                                                                  │
                                                                    [Agnello Tracked Down & Arrested]

Law enforcement officials reported that a verbal dispute between Carmine Gotti Agnello and his 29-year-old girlfriend quickly turned physical. The criminal complaint notes that the argument stemmed from a domestic dispute where Agnello accused the victim of infidelity.

As the confrontation escalated, Agnello allegedly tracked the woman outside the residence, where he slapped her on the left cheek and struck her with a closed fist on the left side of her face. The physical encounter intensified when Agnello reportedly placed both hands firmly around the victim's neck, applying heavy pressure that resulted in a criminal obstruction of breathing.

During the altercation, Agnello allegedly kicked the victim and snatched her $2,000 smartphone, smashing it violently onto the ground to prevent her from contacting emergency services. The victim managed to break free from the property, leave the immediate area, and successfully flag down authorities.

Formal Charges and Arraignment Details

Following a brief search by local detectives, Agnello was located and arrested without incident on Wednesday night, June 3, 2026. Law enforcement processed him on multiple state-level charges, including:

• Second-Degree Criminal Mischief (Felony charge due to the value of the destroyed property)

• Third-Degree Assault (Misdemeanor)

• Criminal Obstruction of Breathing or Blood Circulation (Misdemeanor)

On Thursday morning, June 4, 2026, Agnello was brought before a judge at the Nassau County First District Court in Hempstead. Flanked by his criminal defense team, Agnello entered a formal plea of not guilty to all counts. Despite the severity of the allegations and his status as a convicted federal felon awaiting a prison report date, Agnello was released on his own recognizance without being required to post financial bail under current New York statutory guidelines. The presiding judge issued a temporary, absolute order of protection, legally barring him from making any form of contact with the victim.

💰 Looming Prison Time: The $1.1 Million COVID Fraud Scheme

What complicates Agnello's state-level domestic violence arrest is his current standing with the federal judiciary. On April 20, 2026, just weeks prior to this assault, Agnello stood inside the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, where United States District Judge Nusrat J. Choudhury sentenced him to serve 15 months in federal prison.

                      ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
                      │    THE COVID DISASTER RELIEF SCAM       │
                      └────────────────────┬────────────────────┘
                                           │
          ┌────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┐
          ▼                                                                 ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────┐                              ┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│   The Fraudulent SBA Applications  │                              │                                Diversion of Taxpayer Capital  │
│ • Submitted via Crown Auto Parts │                              │                                   • $420,000 Transferred to Crypto │
│ • Falsified Employee Payroll Logs│                              │                                      • Personal Cash Allocations      │
│ • Concealed Misdemeanor Record   │                              │                                      • $1.2M Ordered in Restitution   │
└──────────────────────────────────┘                              └──────────────────────────────────┘

Crown Auto Parts and the Small Business Administration Scams

The federal conviction stems from a multi-year financial investigation spearheaded by the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) U.S. Attorney's Office and federal postal inspectors. Court filings revealed that between April 2020 and November 2021, amidst the height of the global pandemic, Agnello engaged in a calculated scheme to defraud the United States Small Business Administration (SBA).

Operating through his business enterprise, Crown Auto Parts & Recycling, LLC, based in Jamaica, Queens—a neighborhood historically linked to Gambino-controlled automotive and scrap metal rackets—Agnello submitted a sequence of fraudulent applications for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDLP).

The documentation intentionally lied about the business's structural employee metrics and gross payroll overhead. Crucially, Agnello checked boxes certifying under penalty of perjury that he possessed no prior criminal record, deliberately concealing a 2018 misdemeanor conviction to bypass federal compliance checks. In total, the federal government inadvertently disbursed $1.1 million in disaster relief loans straight into accounts controlled by Agnello.

Cryptocurrency Diversions and the Financial Penalty

Instead of deploying the federal capital to secure employee retainment or maintain automotive garage operations, federal prosecutors proved that Agnello immediately diverted the cash for personal enrichment. Most notably, Agnello transferred roughly $420,000 of the stolen taxpayer relief funds directly into a high-risk cryptocurrency startup investment scheme, using the remaining funds as a personal piggy bank.

Alongside his 15-month prison term, Judge Choudhury handed down severe financial judgments, ordering Agnello to execute $1,268,302 in mandatory restitution back to the SBA, complete 100 hours of community service, and remain under strict court supervision for two years following his eventual release from prison.

📺 Kidneys, Context, and the Reality TV Upbringing

The Medical Defense Request: Victoria Gotti’s Kidney Failure

During his April 2026 sentencing hearing, Agnello’s defense attorneys fought hard to keep him out of a federal cell, pleading with the court to substitute prison time with home confinement. The core of their argument rested on a compelling family medical emergency: Agnello's mother, Victoria Gotti—the high-profile daughter of John Gotti—is reportedly suffering from severe kidney failure.

The defense asserted that Carmine was a direct blood match and was actively preparing to undergo surgeries to donate a kidney to his mother. His legal team argued that putting him in a federal correctional facility would disrupt this life-saving transplant.

While Judge Choudhury rejected the home confinement request, she granted a concession, indicating that if the medical transplant date was formalized during his incarceration, his attorneys could file a formal motion for a medical furlough to allow the procedure to take place. Agnello was handed a self-surrender date of June 12, 2026 (with some court-related continuances extending out to July 20, 2026) to report to the Bureau of Prisons. This fresh domestic violence arrest on Long Island could severely disrupt that timeline, as federal prosecutors may move to revoke his pre-surrender release due to a violation of his bail conditions.

"Growing Up Gotti" and a Distorted Reality

During the court proceedings, Agnello’s defense counsel offered a unique argument regarding his development, blaming his actions on his unusual childhood. As a teenager in the early 2000s, Carmine, alongside his brothers John Jr. and Frank, starred in the hit A&E reality television show "Growing Up Gotti."

[Childhood Reality TV Fame] ──► [Glamorization of Mafia Lineage] ──► [Distorted Legal Reality]

The show focused on Victoria Gotti raising her three slicked-back haired teenage sons in their sprawling Long Island mansion, turning the family into pop-culture stars. His defense attorney argued to the judge that being thrust into the national media spotlight at such a vulnerable age, inside a household that frequently romanticized its organized crime associations, gave the young Agnello a skewed perception of the law. Outside the courthouse, his uncle, former Gambino acting boss John "Junior" Gotti, expressed his frustration to reporters regarding the family's ongoing legal battles:

"His mother did a fine job raising him, but the circumstances surrounding our family are always incredibly difficult. As you all know, we've had 15 separate members of our family go to prison over the years. I think it’s enough. I think our family has done its time."

🦅 Historical Context: The Gambino Family and the Agnello Lineage

To understand the broader significance of Carmine Gotti Agnello’s current legal battles, one must examine the history of his father, Carmine Agnello Sr.

                       ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
                       │     THE GAMBINO-AGNELLO LINEAGE        │
                       └───────────────────┬────────────────────┘
                                           │
          ┌────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┐
          ▼                                                                 ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────┐                              ┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│     The Patriarchal Foundation                                  │                                        The Structural Father       
│ • Boss: John "Dapper Don" Gotti                                │                                        • Carmine Agnello Sr.            
│ • Controlled the Family (1985-92)                              │                                         • Gambino Soldier / Scrap King   
│ • Absolute Rejection of Anonymity                              │                                         • Dominated Queens Auto Yards    
└──────────────────────────────────┘                              └──────────────────────────────────┘

Carmine Agnello Sr. and the Scrap Metal Rackets

During the 1980s and 1990s, Carmine Agnello Sr. was a prominent soldier in the Gambino crime family, operating under the direct protection of his father-in-law, John Gotti. Agnello Sr. controlled the lucrative auto-recycling and scrap metal yards in Willets Point and Jamaica, Queens.

Known for his aggressive business style, Agnello Sr. was convicted in 2001 of federal racketeering charges that involved extorting competitor scrap metal dealers, running illegal gambling operations, and operating a systemic insurance fraud scheme. He served nine years in federal prison and was ordered to forfeit millions in asset cash to the government.

The automotive business where his son Carmine Jr. committed the 2026 COVID relief fraud—Crown Auto Parts & Recycling—is a direct continuation of the family's historical presence in the Queens industrial scrap metal sector.

The Modern Position of the Gambino Crime Family

The ongoing legal troubles of the Gotti-Agnello descendants draw considerable media attention, but federal law enforcement sources clarify that the modern, active street administration of the Gambino crime family has intentionally distanced itself from the flamboyant style of the Gotti era.

Following the 1992 conviction of John Gotti and the subsequent prosecutions of his brother Peter Gotti, control of the organization shifted back to its traditional, quiet core. The family's operations moved away from the high-profile public approach of the 1980s, returning to the low-profile strategies favored by historic leaders like Carlo Gambino.

Today, the family focuses on secure, white-collar industries, construction unions, and underground gambling rings, keeping its active street bosses away from reality television cameras and celebrity circles.

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Gotti grandson sentenced to 15 months for COVID relief scam

Gotti grandson sentenced to 15 months for COVID relief scam

  April 20, 2026    Dapper_Don

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John Gotti’s grandson was hit with a 15-month federal prison sentence Monday for running a million-dollar COVID relief scam — a break from the three-year stint he was facing.

Carmine Agnello, 39, tried to dodge serious prison time on the 2024 fraud conviction for months, claiming his ailing mother, Victoria Gotti, would die without his kidney – and said he couldn’t pull off the procedure from inside a federal lockup.

Judge Nusrat Choudhury met him halfway, hitting the Teflon Don’s grandson with a lighter sentence and ordering him to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution — but opting against the max.
Carmine Agnello, John Gotti’s grandson, arriving at Federal Court in Central Islip on April 20, 2026. Agnello was hit with a 15-month federal prison sentence on Monday.
Agnello’s lawyers had pleaded for him to go free, arguing it was necessary to donate a kidney to his ailing mother, Victoria Gotti.


Agnello’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said his client’s link to the notorious Gambino boss doomed him from the start.


“There was really no male role models for Carmine — they were all in jail,” he told the judge. “He tried to live up to the family name. He didn’t have a childhood that would have led to anywhere besides here.”

Agnello grew up in the shadow of the mob, with 15 relatives, including his famous granddad, spending time in prison — and was hurled into the spotlight as a kid in his mom’s 2004 reality TV show, “Growing Up Gotti.”

Agnello admitted in 2024 that he pocketed $1.1 million in COVID relief funds that were meant to help struggling businesses – and used the cash to invest in cryptocurrency.

The scam skimmed Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the Small Business Administration, that was meant to help companies bounce back from the pandemic shutdown.

“During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the defendant shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayer dollars, which he must repay as part of today’s sentence,” said Joseph Nocella, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Federal prosecutor Charles Kelly said in court that the case had nothing to do with Agnello’s notorious grandfather.

“This case is not about John Gotti,” he said. “It’s about Carmine Agnello. At some point, his actions must become his own.”

Agnello’s lawyers argued that a hefty prison sentence would doom his 63-year-old mom, who is battling end-stage renal disease, has no chance without the procedure..

“He is giving me the GIFT OF LIFE,” the mob princess wrote to the judge last month, pleading for her grandson to be cut loose.




On Monday, Lichtman said her condition had improved, which would allow the transplant to be delayed as long as a year.

Federal prosecutors had repeatedly countered that Agnello could give up the kidney behind bars, and said the situation didn’t warrant a break on prison time.

John Gotti, a notorious Gambino crime family boss, was convicted of racketeering in 1992 and died behind bars in 2002 after being diagnosed with throat cancer.

https://nypost.com/2026/04/20/us-news/john-gottis-grandson-learns-fate-in-covid-fraud-case-after-begging-to-stay-free-to-donate-kidney-to-mom/

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Gambino Underboss Turned Rat Faces Bombshell Sexual Assault Lawsuit

Gambino Underboss Turned Rat Faces Bombshell Sexual Assault Lawsuit

  February 25, 2026    Dapper_Don

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For the past several years, former mob enforcer-turned-Arizona celebrity Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano has been trying to get a TV show made about his life. In the process, he’s made life hell for several female employees who worked for him, according to a lawsuit filed last week in federal court.

The lawsuit was filed by 36-year-old Anna Castaneda, a Valley resident who worked as a producer and administrative assistant to Gravano for much of the past three years. She was among fewer than 10 employees of Gravano’s small Chandler production company, Debra’s Way, which he runs along with his ex-wife and current business partner, Debra Gravano.

In her lawsuit against the 80-year-old Gravano, Castaneda claims that he repeatedly behaved inappropriately, to the point of creating a hostile work environment for her and other employees, many of them women. Her complaint alleges that Gravano made racially derogatory comments toward her, stuck his tongue down her throat without her consent on multiple occasions and consistently made sexually explicit comments about sex and his penis, even once exclaiming to Castaneda, “Look how hard my dick is!”

He also allegedly often showed employees nude photos of women on his phone during working hours and had violent outbursts toward female employees, some of whom quit on the spot. Additionally, he allegedly once required Castaneda to collect a sample of his feces from a toilet for a medical test. She says he also kept a gun in his office — which she says he is prohibited from possessing as a convicted felon — and that Gravano once pointed at someone’s head in front of another employee.

Castaneda spoke at length to Phoenix New Times about her experience working for Gravano and provided screenshots of text messages that she said supported her allegations.

“I have thousands of text messages of just, ‘He did this today and he said this today and I don’t want to be alone with him in the office,’” she said.

Castaneda also provided incident reports from the Phoenix Police Department, to whom she complained about Gravano’s behavior. It’s not clear to what extent, if any, Phoenix police investigated those complaints.

Neither Gravano nor his attorney responded to requests for comment from New Times. New Times also reached out to six former employees of Gravano’s but did not hear back from them.

“I thought that I could help him and I tried to do everything I could,” Castaneda said of working for Gravano. “It’s a curse. He’s cursed. He definitely destroys and ruins everything around him.”

He rose to fame in the early 1990s, when he became the highest-ranking member of the Sicilian mafia to flip and become a government witness. In 1991, he testified for the federal government in the RICO and murder trial of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, who’d become known as the Teflon Don for having beaten multiple criminal prosecutions. Gravano was Gotti’s second-in-command, or underboss, and was also facing federal charges.

In 1989, Gravano turned state’s witness after he heard Gotti making disparaging remarks about him on wiretaps played during a court hearing. According to “Underboss,” a 1997 biography of Gravano by Peter Mass, Gotti was heard insisting to another mobster that he sanctioned hits against several mob members at Gravano’s strong direction. The tapes portrayed Gotti as a “long-suffering boss saddled with a mad-dog killer who hounded him to obtain authorizations for hits until he finally threw up his hands and bowed to Sammy’s wishes,” according to the book.

As a government witness, Gravano confessed to participating, in “one way or another,” in 18 or 19 murders, including many he’d not previously been suspected of. After Gravano’s testimony, a jury found Gotti guilty of all racketeering and murder counts against him. Gotti was sentenced to life and died in prison in 2002.

In 1994, Gravano was sentenced to just five years for his role in the mafia operation, thanks in large part to his help prosecuting dozens of key mafia figures, bribed jurors, corrupt cops and trade union officials. Gravano entered witness protection upon his release, even going so far as to change his appearance with plastic surgery, which was arranged by the U.S. Marshals Service. Eight months later, he left witness protection to move to Arizona.

In the Valley, he led a more public life. He also dealt ecstasy. In 2000, Gravano was busted, along with his son Gerard, for running a multimillion-dollar drug ring from his Phoenix-area home. He pleaded guilty in 2001 and wound up serving 17 years in prison. Gravano and Gerard, who is a manager at Debra’s Way, were recently the subject of a 2025 HBO Max documentary about the ecstasy ring. Talos Films produced the film, according to the Internet Movie Database. Gravano’s production company does not appear to have been involved.

That production company, which was founded in 2018, has largely been Gravano’s focus since he got out of prison. Gravano has leveraged it to rebrand himself as something of a mafia influencer, podcaster and content creator.

The company produces Gravano’s podcast, “Our Thing” — a reference to Cosa Nostra, the Italian term for the five families of New York’s Sicilian mafia. On the show, Gravano sits in a big leather chair in dim lighting and tells mob stories directly to the camera. The show’s 120-plus episodes often feature high-profile gangsters. The company also has a digital, members-only content platform called OurThing.TV, which offers more interviews — including a tease of an upcoming interview with infamous Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — as well as short films and documentaries.

Castaneda began working for Gravano in 2022. She told New Times she’d had a previous friendship with someone in Gravano’s orbit and also had a family member who’d been caught up in Gravano’s ecstasy ring. She’d also worked in TV production — she’d played a small part in the 2020 Spanish-language Netflix film “Mutiny of the Worker Bees” and is listed on IMDb as a second-unit director on another Spanish-language production — and had studied at the American Music and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles before switching tracks to study psychology at Arizona State University.

Castaneda was still studying at ASU when Gerald Gravano called to ask her to come work for his father’s production company. Castaneda told New Times that Gerard told her that his father was “making all these mistakes in the business” and he “just really needs help.” Aside from helping produce Gravano’s podcast, most of Castaneda’s work with the company focused on trying to get a scripted TV drama about Gravano’s life off the ground.

Taking the job, she now realizes, was “a big mistake.”

Gravano’s wished-for TV show is more than just a flight of fancy. Castaneda’s complaint says she secured meetings for Gravano with “major studios, executive producers, show creators, and writers,” and several notable names have been attached to the project over the years.

In 2023, Kapital Entertainment signed on to create a scripted show about Gravano’s life. Nick Pileggi, who co-wrote “Goodfellas” and “Casino” along with Martin Scorsese, was attached to the production in 2024. Later that year, “Boardwalk Empire” creator Terence Winter joined as showrunner and “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua agreed to direct. FX was also going to co-produce the series.

But while there was progress on producing the show, Gravano’s alleged treatment of Castaneda grew more and more brazen. She kept going, she said, for the promise of an executive producer credit and finishing the project.

“You’re walking on eggshells, but you’re trying to get those big deals done,” she told New Times. “If you could just get a big deal over the line, you’re always told, like, ‘Everything’s going to be different, things are going to get better.’”

Castaneda said her first truly alarming interaction with Gravano came in September 2023. According to her lawsuit, Castaneda and Gravano had returned to the office after a dinner meeting with an executive producer when Gravano stood over her and “forcibly kissed her and thrust his tongue into her mouth without consent.” The lawsuit says she “recoiled and pushed Mr. Gravano away.”

Six months later, Gravano allegedly did it again. After a birthday dinner for Gravano, Castaneda drove him home, where Gravano pulled her into his home office, saying he needed to discuss “business matters.” While she sat in a chair in his office, Gravano again forcibly kissed her, the lawsuit says.

“It was so disgusting and violating,” Castaneda told New Times. “He waited until I was more vulnerable and alone and it was in the office. I pushed him away while I leaned back at the same time.”

Between those two alleged assaults, Castaneda says, Gravano twice pressured her into sharing a hotel room with him during work trips to Los Angeles, insisting it would save money despite Castaneda offering to pay for her own room. On a December 2023 trip, she allegedly had to sleep in the same bed as Gravano, though her complaint says she slept above the covers. That night, apparently thinking she was asleep, Gravano allegedly began to rub Castaneda’s arm while lying in bed, which her lawsuit says made her “extremely uncomfortable.” She turned away and pretended to be asleep.

On another trip two months later, Gravano insisted that they share a room, this time with separate beds. This time, the lawsuit says, Gravano sat on Castaneda’s bed and offered her a massage, which Castaneda declined. Despite her objections, Gravano began massaging her head, shoulders and neck. Castaneda was “extremely upset and uncomfortable during this interaction,” according to the lawsuit.

After Gravano left the room, she told New Times, “I literally got up and vomited.”

Castaneda’s lawsuit claims that Gravano acted similarly toward other women in the office. He allegedly showed nude photos of women to employees and at least once “fondl(ed) his penis over his clothing and exclaim(ed) to Ms. Castaneda and another female staff member, ‘Look how hard my dick is!’”

“He always grabs himself,” Castaneda told New Times. “He always talks about how hard he is, how erect he is. He’s on testosterone. He’s got these Viagra pills. This is pervasive. It’s daily and constant.”

The lawsuit also claims that Gravano would explode in anger at women staffers who “rejected his sexual advances or objected to his sexually explicit comments.” In 2022, the suit claims, “numerous employees of Debra’s Way resigned due to the hostile work environment perpetuated by Salvatore Gravano.” Castaneda recalled one coworker quitting on the spot around that time.

“He just exploded with rage at her and leaped from behind his desk at her. He was pounding his chest, like screaming at this 22-year-old girl,” Castaneda told New Times. “She just turned on the same heel and walked out that front door.”

While Gravano dealt with bowel issues in April 2024, according to the lawsuit, he required Castaneda “to assist him with a stool test by scooping his feces and transferring it into test tubes.” That same month, Castaneda sent Gravano an email “regarding his treatment of her,” including what she said was his misclassification of her as an independent contractor.

Not long after, the lawsuit says, the production company cut her pay.

After she complained in an email to Gravano about her treatment, Castaneda claims, his behavior got more unpredictable and violent.

While in the car with Gravano during a June 2024 trip to Los Angeles, the suit claims, Gravano “became enraged over a Hollywood director who was not returning Mr. Gravano’s emails about the scripted show project.” The suit says Gravano “began making racist slurs and violent remarks about this director, who happened to be African American.” The suit does not name the director, but Castaneda told New Times that the comments were directed at Fuqua. New Times reached out to Fuqua’s representatives but has not received a response.

Last August, Castaneda says, she witnessed Gravano attempt to strangle his son, Gerard. Her complaint says she was also aware of — but didn’t necessarily witness — other violent outbursts from Gravano, including an instance of him pointing a gun at someone in the Debra’s Way offices. Castaneda also witnessed Gravano display the gun around the office, she told New Times.

About a year ago, Castaneda told Gravano that she needed to temporarily work from home due to a “medical crisis” involving her young adult son. She claims that Debra’s Way didn’t pay her after that, despite the fact that she “continued to successfully perform all required job duties.”

The lawsuit says Gravano became “increasingly agitated and unstable” due to her absence. He began sending Castaneda expletive-filled text messages and angry phone calls. (These do not appear to be among the many text messages Castaneda shared with New Times.) Then Gravano would switch to “sexually propositioning her and asking her to meet him for a candlelit dinner and let him ‘fuck’ her,” according to the complaint.

A little more than a week after Castaneda began working from home, Gravano fired her over text and said he’d “crush” her if she came forward with allegations against him, according to the lawsuit. Castaneda shared a screenshot of that text with New Times.

Soon after, per the complaint, Gravano and his son began defaming Castaneda around the office, telling at least three employees that Castaneda was a “hooker” who “extorts men for money.” The lawsuit claims that at least one employee repeated those comments to someone in the entertainment industry. In June 2024, the lawsuit says, Gravano also told another employee that he wanted to “shoot” Castaneda. A month later, he allegedly told an employee that “he became sexually aroused by the idea of strangling Ms. Castaneda to death.”

Though Castaneda’s complaint said Gravano still tried to lure her back into his employ, the former mobster allegedly continued to make threatening comments about her. In September, she claims, Gravano approached one of her family members and stated that he was surprised she was “coming after” him. He added that “he thought she would be more concerned about the safety of herself and her son, implying that Ms. Castaneda and her son could be in danger if she pursues legal action against him,” the lawsuit says.

“I was terrified because I knew he had a gun,” Castaneda told New Times. She added: “He’s definitely capable of that.”

In August, before Gravano’s alleged threatening comment to one of her relatives, Castaneda reported the forced kisses, death threats and firearm possession to the Phoenix Police Department. Around the same time, another woman who’d worked for Debra’s Way Productions reported Gravano to Phoenix police for a “pattern of sexual harassment against her,” according to an incident report that Castaneda shared with New Times. The employee accused Gravano and his son of pressuring her to have sex with them and said Gravano also exposed himself to her and tried to kiss her.

New Times contacted the second employee about her allegations, but she declined to discuss them for this story. However, text messages shared by Castaneda with New Times show them discussing their experiences with Gravano in detail.

“Hey, your sister said you wanted to text or chat about what happened at Sammy’s…” says one July 2025 text from Castaneda to the other woman. “Are you okay?”

It’s not clear how police handled those complaints. New Times requested the full reports from the department in November but has yet to receive them. Castaneda says police declined to recommend criminal charges against Gravano four months after she filed her report. Phoenix police have not responded to an inquiry about the investigation.

In April of last year, Castaneda sent a demand letter to Gravano and Debra’s Way. In the letter, which she provided to New Times, she demanded more than $1,000 in back pay, to be transferred to the employ of Kapital Entertainment and to be ensured of her $5,000-per-episode fee for the scripted series. She later sent a similar letter to Kapital Entertainment.

The letters produced no resolution. So Castaneda sued. She’s claiming assault, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and the violation of several state and federal labor laws. She’s seeking several forms of damages, including more than $29,000 in unpaid overtime.

Meanwhile, the show about Gravano’s life appears to have stalled. In an email to New Times, Kapital Entertainment CEO Aaron Kaplan said FX passed on the project last year after receiving the script. “It is no longer an active television project,” he wrote. However, Scott Greenberg, the manager for Fuqua and Winter, told New Times earlier this month that the series is still “in development.”

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-woman-sues-sammy-the-bull-sexual-assault-40648029/

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From Made Men to Menu Change: Aldo’s Halal Reboot

From Made Men to Menu Change: Aldo’s Halal Reboot

  February 15, 2026    Dapper_Don

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It was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

One of the Big Apple’s most notorious Mafia hotspots is shedding its wiseguy reputation to become a halal Italian restaurant — thanks to a former pizza-slinger who bought the business from its cash-strapped owners in December.

Sheik Ahsan Ali, 29, the new proprietor of Aldo’s Pizzaria and Restaurant in Ozone Park, Queens, celebrated his restaurant’s grand re-opening last week, although without the pork and alcohol that fueled some of the reputed backdoor gambling rings and 14-hour Mafioso lunches there over the past six decades.

“There’s a need for change because the demographic is changing,” Ali recently told The Post.


“We have a lot of immigrants, and not everybody is eating because of certain things — like some folks can’t have alcohol,” said Ali, who spent years working behind Aldo’s counter.

“We have to change with the times.”

But while everyone is welcome at Ali’s joint, he emphasized that the gangsters who once used Aldo’s as a meeting spot will not be.

Gambino crime-boss Ronald Trucchio — known as “Ronny One Arm” because one of his arms was partly paralyzed — was a regular and told prosecutors he even took a $72,000 salary from Aldo’s before his 2003 racketeering arrest, when Aldo’s was at its original 101 Street location.

Vinny Asaro, who played a role in the 1978 Lufthansa heist that inspired “Goodfellas,” was also known to frequent the joint.

“It looked like a scene out of a mob movie that went right to video and never made the big screen,” a source said at the time.

In recent years, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg investigated possible illegal gambling at the Ozone Park eatery and probed whether City Councilman Eric Ulrich gave a government job to one of Aldo’s co-owners under suspicious circumstances.

Ulrich brought Eric Adams to the restaurant, with the then-mayoral candidate then turning it into his unofficial headquarters during his 2020 run. Aldo’s even catered the ex-mayor’s primary-race watch party, according to sources.

Ali claimed the eatery’s mob connections have long been dead — as part of a larger dying Big Apple mobster culture.

“I did hear a lot of stories back in the days, but I have never encountered anything, being in this place for the past so many years, their activities or anything like that,” said Ali, whose first shift at Aldo’s was in 2016.

“There is no attachment of those people anymore. I believe the time has changed.”

While halal pizza joints can be found throughout the city, he said he believes his shop is the first full Italian restaurant to be halal.

Ali said that owning his own halal restaurant had long been a dream of his — since he learned to toss dough under the original owner, Aldo Calore.

He quickly graduated to general manager, a role he was serving when brothers Anthony and Joe Livreri, who ran the shop for a decade, were evicted in December for failing to pay their rent.

With the legendary name of “Aldo’s” — which Ali estimates to be worth $1 million — and the shop’s perfect corner spot up for grabs, Ali realized he was given an offer he couldn’t pass up.

Ali’s uncle, Arshad Hussain, who owns the building, was ecstatic at his nephew’s business idea — telling The Post, “I dreamed of this.

“I always wanted to do something like this for the community and for the legacy of Italian food. I think this is a very new concept to the people,” said Hussain.

Aldo’s still uses the same recipes that its founder, Calore, crafted when he opened his original shop in 1962, save for two key ingredients.

The two are the pork and booze that are non-permissible for Muslims, so Ali’s recipes call for alcohol-free cooking wine, and all bites feature beef or chicken instead of pork.

“The first thing — after our own food — Muslims like Italian food, and the problem is that we can’t go out to eat because most Italian food is made out of alcohol, wines and stuff like that,” Ali told The Post, noting that he and his fellow-Muslim pizza slingers were limited to eating plain slices in the previous iterations of Aldo’s.

“So I always wanted to open my own place where I could cater to all kinds of nationalities.

“But I just didn’t want it to be limited to Muslims people only. I wanted to cater to everybody,” he said. “That is why we took a lot of time to make sure all the meat to be substituted would taste the same.”

Ali has a friend who taste-tested his substituted meats to make sure the beef pepperoni or beef prosciutto tasted like their pork counterparts.

“A lot of people say it tastes better than before!” Ali said.

https://nypost.com/2026/02/15/us-news/aldos-in-ozone-park-sheds-mob-past-to-be-halal-italian-joint/

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Powerhouse New Jersey Genovese gangster and his very violent reputation

Powerhouse New Jersey Genovese gangster and his very violent reputation

  February 07, 2026    Dapper_Don

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Gambino Soldier pleads guilty to racketeering conspiracy

Gambino Soldier pleads guilty to racketeering conspiracy

  February 06, 2026    Dapper_Don

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Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, James Laforte, also known as “Jimmy,” an inducted member of the Gambino organized crime family, pleaded guilty before United States Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Marutollo to racketeering conspiracy, Hobbs Act extortion and Hobbs Act extortion conspiracy, witness retaliation, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

LaForte is the last of 10 defendants charged in a 2023 indictment in connection with various offenses committed by members and associates of the Gambino crime family— including extortion, money laundering conspiracy and witness retaliation—to plead guilty or be convicted at trial. On October 17, 2025, seven members and associates of the Gambino crime family pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy in proceedings held before United States District Judge Frederic Block. Those defendants are Gambino crime family captain Joseph Lanni, also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino;” Gambino soldiers Diego “Danny” Tantillo and Angelo Gradilone, also known as “Fifi;” U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia member and Gambino associate Vito Rappa, also known as “Vi;” U.S.-based Sicilian Mafia associate and Gambino associate Francesco Vicari, also known as “Frank” and “Uncle Ciccio;” and Gambino associates Kyle Johnson, also known as “Twin,” and Vincent Minsquero, also known as “Vinny Slick.” In August 2025, Salvatore DiLorenzo pleaded guilty to theft from employee benefits plans. In December 2025, a federal jury convicted defendant Robert Brooke of one count of Hobbs Act extortion.

Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, James C. Barnacle, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), Anthony P. D’Esposito, Inspector General of the United States Department of Labor (DOL-OIG), and Jessica S. Tisch, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD) announced the guilty pleas and trial conviction.

“The prosecution of these members and associates of the Gambino organized crime family has dealt a significant blow to that violent criminal enterprise,” stated United States Attorney Nocella. “Their efforts to take over and infiltrate legitimate businesses by means of intimidation threatened hardworking New Yorkers and terrorized their victims. Our Office will continue to hold accountable those who seek to use violence and fear to enrich themselves.”

Mr. Nocella expressed his appreciation to the New York City Business Integrity Commission, the New York Waterfront Commission, and the Office’s law enforcement partners in Italy, including the Prosecutor of Palermo, the Polizia di Stato, the Servizio Centrale Operativo, and the Squadra Mobile of Palermo.

“These ten Gambino members and associates orchestrated a campaign of violent assaults and property destruction to collect debts and intimidate those employed by competing companies,” stated FBI Assistant Director in Charge Barnacle. “Their collective actions terrorized New York residents and businesses to generate an illegal revenue stream. The FBI maintains its commitment to coordinating with our local and international law enforcement partners in the fight against organized crime.”

“These defendants used fraud, intimidation, and violence in an attempt to seize control of New York City’s demolition industry, including schemes targeting labor unions and their employee benefit plans,” stated DOL Inspector General D’Esposito. “DOL-OIG will continue working shoulder to shoulder with our law-enforcement partners to root out labor racketeering and eliminate the influence of organized crime from the labor industry. Accountability is non-negotiable.”

As set forth in court filings, members and associates of the Gambino crime family used violent extortion, fraud, theft and embezzlement schemes to infiltrate the carting and demolition industries to enrich themselves and the Gambino crime family, including by laundering criminal proceeds. For example, during a financial dispute between Tantillo and the owners of a demolition company (Demolition Company 1), Tantillo and Johnson coordinated a violent hammer assault on an employee of Demolition Company 1, which left the employee bleeding and seriously injured.

Extortions Related to the Carting and Demolition Industries

Tantillo, Rappa, Vicari and Johnson engaged in a violent extortion conspiracy relating to the demand and receipt of money from an individual (John Doe 1) who operated a carting business in the New York City area. The extortion scheme involved threatening John Doe 1 with a bat, setting fire to the steps to John Doe 1’s residence, attempting to damage John Doe 1’s carting trucks, and violently assaulting an associate of John Doe 1. After John Doe 1 ultimately made a payment of $4,000 to Vicari, Vicari and Rappa met and sent Tantillo a photo of Vicari raising a small champagne bottle, as in a toast.

As proven at Brooke’s trial, in the fall of 2019, Brooke engaged in a violent extortion scheme against the owners of a demolition company (John Does 2 through 4) over purported debts owed to Tantillo and a company that was co-operated by Tantillo and Brooke. On December 18, 2019, one of the victims was walking to work when he was ambushed and attacked by Brooke at 50th Street and Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. The victim suffered a fractured cheek bone, black eye and contusions to his face. In the weeks after the beating, Tantillo reached out to the victims who are brothers and told them to pay Brooke and to drop the criminal charges against Brooke. Fearing for the safety of themselves and their employees, the owners of the demolition company paid $50,000 to Tantillo and $40,000 to the company co-operated by Tantillo and Brooke.



Extortion and Assault of a Borrower

In 2020 and 2021, LaForte extorted a person who owed money to an associate of LaForte (John Doe 5). After failing to pay LaForte’s associate on time, John Doe 5 was introduced to LaForte, who asked John Doe 5 to run an illegal poker game and a craps game for LaForte. When John Doe 5 asked LaForte after the craps game for John Doe 5’s share of the earnings from running the game, LaForte hit John Doe 5 in the face, knocking John Doe 5 backward and giving him a black eye. LaForte later contacted John Doe 5’s father to force John Doe 5 to pay what LaForte said was John Doe 5’s debt. In text messages exchanged in November 2020, shortly after John Doe 5’s loan, the person who had lent John Doe 5 the money wrote that “[t]his other punk [John Doe 5] is playing games,” and “Might ride up to his house Saturday with one of my guys from down here.” Another party to the conversation responded, “I took him up to c jimmy made it clear” and later added, “We’ll get it. He’s scared to death of jimmy.”



Witness Retaliation and Assault



On February 17, 2021, LaForte and Minsquero assaulted a person who they believed had previously provided information to law enforcement about members and associates of organized crime (John Doe 6), while Lanni sat nearby. That evening LaForte and Minsquero approached John Doe 6 inside a restaurant. LaForte called John Doe 6 a “rat” and hit John Doe 6 in the face with a bottle. LaForte and Minsquero also flipped John Doe 6’s table, sending drinks and shattered glass everywhere.

Frauds and Union-Related Crimes in the Carting and Demolition Industries

Various defendants also committed a series of crimes to steal and embezzle from unions and employee benefit plans and rigged bids in the demolition and carting industries. As part of one such scheme, DiLorenzo provided Rappa with a “no-show” job at DiLorenzo’s demolition company so that Rappa could receive paychecks and union health benefits, among other benefits. Similarly, Tantillo arranged for Gradilone to receive a “no-show” job at a construction company with which Tantillo was associated, which enabled Gradilone to receive paychecks and union health benefits to which he was not entitled. Tantillo and Johnson also conspired to secure a “no-show” job for Johnson, so that Johnson could similarly receive union health benefits.

* * * * *

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Organized Crime and Gangs Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Anna L. Karamigios, Andrew M. Roddin, Elias Laris, and Brooke E. Theodora are in charge of the prosecution.

Defendant Who Pleaded Guilty Today:

JAMES LAFORTE (also known as “Jimmy”)

Age: 49

New York, New York

Defendants Who Previously Pleaded Guilty:

JOSEPH LANNI (also known as “Joe Brooklyn” and “Mommino”)
Age: 54
Staten Island, New York

DIEGO TANTILLO (also known as “Danny” and “Daniel”)
Age: 50
Freehold, New Jersey

ROBERT BROOKE
Age: 58
New York, New York

SALVATORE DILORENZO
Age: 69
Oceanside, New York

ANGELO GRADILONE (also known as “Fifi”)
Age: 59
Staten Island, New York

KYLE JOHNSON (also known as “Twin”)
Age: 48
Bronx, New York

VINCENT MINSQUERO (also known as “Vinny Slick” )
Age: 39
Staten Island, New York

VITO RAPPA (also known as “Vi”)
Age: 58
East Brunswick, New Jersey

FRANCESCO VICARI (also known as “Frank” and “Uncle Ciccio”)
Age: 65
Elmont, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 23-CR-443 (FB)

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/gambino-crime-family-soldier-pleads-guilty-racketeering-conspiracy-and-related-charges

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Former Philadelphia Mafia Hitman surfaces in new interview

Former Philadelphia Mafia Hitman surfaces in new interview

  January 27, 2026    Dapper_Don

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New Official Boss of the Colombo Family busted for parole violation again

New Official Boss of the Colombo Family busted for parole violation again

  January 23, 2026    Dapper_Don

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He’s now the boss of the Colombo crime family, the feds say — and his decision to hold court at a family Christmas party in Brooklyn could land him back in the can.

Theodore “Skinny Teddy” Persico Jr., the nephew of notorious Colombo boss Carmine “The Snake” Persico,” has officially taken the title once held by his late uncle, according to federal prosecutors.

And, he admitted in court Thursday, he violated the terms of his supervised release when he met and chatted with three Colombo members at Ponte Vecchio restaurant in Bay Ridge on Dec. 1.

Persico, 62, was the heir apparent to the crime family in 2023 when he was sentenced to five years behind bars for a labor union extortion plot. The same scheme had helped the feds bust the clan’s leadership two years earlier.

Part of his sentence was steering clear of family associations. At the time, his lawyer told Judge Hector Gonzalez he had “no desire to be boss,” The Messenger reported.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Lash said at a hearing Thursday in Brooklyn Federal Court that Persico has not only failed to move to New Jersey and leave the Colombos behind, but he’s actually running the show.

“Not only has he not done that, he has taken on the mantle of leadership that he claims to have distanced himself from,” Lash told Gonzalez Thursday.

Persico appeared before the judge Thursday after the feds charged him with violating his supervised release shortly after his July 2025 release from federal custody by associating with organized crime figures.

The reputed boss pleaded guilty to two violations, admitting he met one Colombo member outside NYU Langone Hospital on Aug. 29, and speaking to three more at Porto Vecchio on Dec. 1. Both meet-ups were caught on video.

He told the judge that his wife, Nicole, was getting surgery at the hospital when “my friend came to support me, and I shouldn’t have been there with him.”

That “friend” was on a prohibited list from a past case of his, and Persico said that even though he hadn’t gotten the latest list of people to avoid, he “stupidly assumed that maybe he wouldn’t be on it.”

For the second meeting, Persico explained that he was having dinner with his cousin when he saw “two gentlemen that knew for a long time.”

“I went out of my way to talk to them and wish them a Merry Christmas,” he said.

Persico faces a maximum two years behind bars when he’s sentenced Feb. 11, though if the judge sticks to federal guidelines he can expect five to 11 months.

“He does expect some incarceration in this matter as a learning experience,” his lawyer, Joseph Corozzo Jr. said. ‘It is a learning experience, as every one of Mr. Persico’s cases has been a learning experience.”

Lash cast both meetings in a more nefarious light, describing how he left his phone behind while he used his wife’s medical appointment as cover to meet with a fellow gangster.

He understood he was on camera at the restaurant and pretended to ignore the three Colombo members, Lash said, but later, when he headed to the rear of the eatery, “he’s seen hugging and kissing the men that he pretended to ignore,” Lash said.

Unbeknownst to him, that part of the restaurant was also caught on camera, she said.

She also said that the way the men approached him made it clear they were showing deference to the boss of the family.

“He’s had countless learning experiences,” Lash said, pointing out that he’s never successfully finished a term of supervised release, and that he committed technical violations right before committing each new crime in his past cases. “He knows the lessons of associating with prohibited people.”

Persico has a storied career in crime dating back to 1981, when he was 17 years old and was busted for attempted grand larceny on Staten Island. He later spent 17 years behind bars for drug dealing until his release in 2004, and while on a brief furlough for his grandmother’s wake in 1993, he ordered members of his crew to kill Joseph Scopo, a member of a rival Colombo faction.

That earned him another 12 years, and he told his sentencing judge in 2014, “I assure you I’ll do my best not to be here again.”

He was freed on supervised release in May 2020, but quickly broke that pledge, chowing down with his fellow Colombo gangsters at the legendary Brennan and Carr restaurant that November to discuss the crime family’s future, and their labor union shakedown scheme.

Gonzalez ordered him released on home confinement and a $1 million bond, secured by his mother’s nearly $1 million home in Bensonhurst, and he and his wife’s $1.25 million home in the swanky Todt Hill neighborhood of Staten Island.

Lash said the government will move to take both homes if he violates the terms of his release again.

The judge alluded to his past remarks at Persico’s last sentencing, saying, “It’s a waste of breath on my part if he doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do.”

Persico and his wife declined comment as they walked out of the courtroom Thursday.

https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/01/22/colombo-crime-family-heir-apparent-promised-to-steer-clear-but-feds-say-hes-running-the-family/

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