(12 Feb 2014) Reputed mobsters in New York City and Italy joined forces in a failed conspiracy to smuggle large amounts of heroin and cocaine, with one suspect suggesting that the drugs could be concealed in frozen fish bound for an Italian port, authorities said Tuesday.
Law enforcement officials on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean said the scheme involved Italy’s powerful `ndrangheta organized crime syndicate and New York’s Gambino organized crime family. A sting operation resulted in 24 arrests: 17 in Italy and seven in New York.
The FBI says the defendants arrested in New York were ‘ndrangheta member Raffaele Valente, also known as "Lello"; Gambino associate Franco Lupoi; Bonanno associate Charles Centaro, also known as "Charlie Pepsi"; Dominic Ali; Alexander Chan; Christos Fasarakis; and Jose Alfredo Garcia, also known as "freddy."
The investigation targeted a new cocaine trafficking route from South America to the southern Italian port of Gioia Tauro, Italian anti-Mafia police said. In exchange, the Italians were to provide heroin to the American market.
Officials, using wiretaps and an undercover agent who infiltrated the Brooklyn-based mob, said they thwarted the delivery to Italy of about 500 kilograms of pure cocaine that was to have been hidden in shipments of canned coconuts, pineapples and frozen fish being shipped from Guyana to Gioia Tauro.
Lupoi, alleged to be a Gambino associate, pleaded not guilty to international heroin conspiracy and other charges on Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn. He was ordered held without bail.
Reputed `ndrangheta member Raffaele Valente, an Italian citizen and U.S. legal resident, also pleaded not guilty at the hearing and was jailed. He was accused of plotting with Lupoi to sell $1 million in counterfeit U.S. Currency.
The defense attorneys for both men had no immediate comment.
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