Feds pick up John Gotti's jailed grandson and Bonanno captain on arson charges
Federal authorities in Brooklyn busted the jailed namesake grandson of the late Dapper Don John Gotti along with a reputed Bonnano wiseguy who was acquitted in 2015 over the infamous Lufthansa heist immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas.”
Gotti and Vincent Asaro were taken into custody Wednesday along with other purported mobsters, and are expected to be arraigned on charges tied to a 2012 arson later in the day, authorities said Wednesday.
The arson charges stem from a road rage incident in which Asaro, a Bonanno capo, got so enraged when another motorist cut him off at a traffic light that he chased the other vehicle.
Later, after obtaining the home address of the guy who cut him off, Asaro ordered an unnamed Bonanno associate to set fire to his car. That associate then recruited Gotti and another associate, Matthew “Fat Matt” Rullan, to help him carry out the arson, the feds allege.
In the pre-dawn hours of April 4, 2012, the three drove in Gotti’s Jaguar to a service station, where they filled a container with gasoline, went to the home of the guy who had cut off Asaro and doused his car with gasoline, the feds said, noting that Rullan set it ablaze.
The fire caught the attention of an NYPD officer in an unmarked car who chased the Jaguar from the scene. The high-speed chase tore through the streets of Queens until the cop gave up for safety reasons “due to Gotti’s reckless driving,” the feds said.
The next day, the unnamed goon told Asaro about the arson, and the mob boss drove to the auto body shop where the burned vehicle had been towed to confirm that his order had been carried out, authorities said.
Two weeks after the Asaro-ordered revenge arson, Gotti, Rullan and another associate, Michael Guidici, 22, robbed the Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan, according to the feds.
In the April 18, 2012, heist, Guidici allegedly entered the bank at 5:45 p.m. and handed a teller a note demanding money and stating, among other things, “I HAVE A BOMB[.]” The teller placed $5,491 on the counter, which Guidici took, the feds allege.
Guidici then joined Gotti and Rullan, who were waiting outside the bank in a car, and they fled the scene together, the feds say.
Bonanno associate Christopher “Bald Chris” Boothby and Matthew “Mack” Hattley are also accused of stealing $50,000 in cash and hundreds of thousands in jewelry during a March 2014 home invasion in Queens.
Hattley and associate Darren Elliot, 30, additionally are charged with robbing a Long Island jewelry store at gunpoint in 2011, making off with around $250,000 in gems.
Gotti, 23, currently is serving eight years behind bars after pleading guilty to state drug-dealing charges in Queens last month.
In 2015, a Brooklyn jury found 82-year-old Asaro not guilty of charges he orchestrated the Lufthansa robbery with James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke. A turncoat mob associate testified that Asaro and Burke killed a suspected informant with a dog chain. The defense argued Asaro was framed.
Five other men were rounded up and with the pair charged with arson, bank robbery, robberies of goods across state lines and firearms offenses in connection with the Bonanno organized crime family, the feds said.
“The defendants are charged with committing an assortment of violent crimes — arson to exact punishment for a perceived slight and robberies to unjustly enrich themselves,” said Acting US Attorney Bridget Rhode. The feds worked with the Queens DA’s office, the NYPD and Nassau County police in making the arrests, she said.
http://nypost.com/2017/03/22/john-gottis-grandson-busted-with-mafia-big-on-arson-charges/
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