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Gotti, 5 Others Charged In Federal Probe

News Channel 8 photo by PETER MASA

FBI officials announce the indictment of John A. Gotti Jr. at FBI headquarters in Tampa.

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI and NEIL JOHNSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 6, 2008

Updated: 08/06/2008 12:23 am

TAMPA - Growing up in Queens, N.Y., Jimmy Cadicamo hung around with John A. Gotti.

Gotti once picked the lock of his father's liquor cabinet and shared booze with Cadicamo, who now lives in Tampa, according to Cadicamo's lawyer.

Tuesday, Cadicamo and Gotti were indicted in related cases brought by federal prosecutors in Tampa, accusing the two, along with four other men in New York, of a vast racketeering conspiracy dating to 1983 under the umbrella of the Gambino organized crime family.

Gotti is accused of participating in three New York mob killings between 1988 and 1991. The family was once ruled by Gotti's father, the late John J. Gotti, known as the "Dapper Don," for his expensive suits.

All six defendants are expected to be prosecuted in Tampa federal court.

"What you have here is the Gambino crime family reaching out to Tampa, Florida," U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill said.

Gotti's attorney said it is the U.S. Attorney's Office that is doing the reaching.

The only reason Gotti is being accused of murder, said Charles Carnesi, is that one or more people connected to a previous Tampa mob investigation informed on Gotti.

The investigation that led to the indictments is related to the 2006 prosecution in Tampa of Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio, a captain in the Gambino family who was sentenced to life after being convicted of racketeering.

That trial centered largely on activities in New York and New Jersey, but also focused on a brutal battle for control of the lucrative valet parking business in the Tampa area.

With Tuesday's indictments, federal prosecutors implicated another Tampa business, a Hillsborough Avenue nightclub, Club Mirage. Prosecutors say the Gambino crime family used the club to conceal illegal income.

The nightclub is also the focus of a battle for control involving Cadicamo and two men who figured prominently in the Trucchio case, John Alite and Michael Malone.

Malone pleaded guilty to extortion and armed robbery in September 2006 and cooperated in the government's ongoing racketeering investigations. Prosecutors alleged Tuesday that Cadicamo conspired to kill Malone in retaliation for that cooperation.

Alite, who was charged in the Trucchio case, has been awaiting trial since he was extradited from Brazil in December 2006, after the Trucchio trial was over.

Trucchio, who briefly served as his own attorney, speculated during his trial that Florida federal prosecutors really wanted to go after the younger Gotti, but targeted Trucchio when their New York counterparts refused to go along with that.

Gotti's lawyer said it doesn't make sense that Gotti is being prosecuted in Tampa. "I am not sure he has ever even been to Tampa," Carnesi said. "The homicides that are alleged are New York homicides, they have nothing to do with Florida. There is no logical reason why this case should be in Tampa, other than maybe the prosecutors up here are a little more skeptical about the case."

Prosecutors Link Cadicamo To Alite

Alite, 45, fled to South America before the Trucchio trial. In his absence, he was described during the trial as the link between Tampa and New York, leading a crew that committed crimes in the Bay area and elsewhere.

Prosecutors allege Cadicamo, 33, and Malone, were part of Alite's crew.

While Alite was on the lam, Cadicamo sent him money in Cuba and later Colombia, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Trezevant.

Cadicamo also visited Alite in jail in Brazil and tried to provide money for Alite to bribe his way out of jail there, Trezevant said.

Alite described Cadicamo and Malone in court papers as "confidants." Alite claimed in a court filing that in 2000, he fronted $500,000 to open Club Mirage. When his representative, the late Cam Rowell, resigned in 2001, he sent Malone and Cadicamo to manage and operate the nightclub on Hillsborough Avenue, Alite wrote.

At some point, Cadicamo, Malone and Alite apparently had a falling out.

In May, from behind bars in Tampa, Alite filed a lawsuit against Cadicamo, alleging that Cadicamo and his sister had wrested control of Club Mirage and were on the verge of selling its assets. A judge issued a temporary injunction against the sale of the club. A hearing scheduled for July 31 was canceled, and it's not clear what will happen with the lawsuit.

Cadicamo became furious when he learned Malone was cooperating with prosecutors and wanted him killed, Trezevant said in court Tuesday.

He told someone in Tampa to go to the federal courthouse during the Trucchio trial to see whether it would be possible to kill Malone there, Trezevant said.

Later, Cadicamo planned to have the same person fly to Philadelphia and drive to New York where he would beat Malone with a baseball bat and had people in New York follow Malone to learn his schedule, the prosecutor said.

Cadicamo's attorney, Joseph Fritz of Tampa, said it did not make sense for someone in Tampa to plan to intimidate or kill Malone when others in New York had more access to the man.

Also, no one is alleging Cadicamo took any action against Malone, Fritz said.

Fritz said Cadicamo has lived in Tampa since about 2001. He was raised in the same Queens neighborhood as Gotti and the other defendants. "They were all friends and grew up together. He is not a member of any crime family," Fritz said.

The most serious criminal conviction against Cadicamo, Fritz said, was a car theft for which he served about a year behind bars in New York.

"Jimmy does have a one-year jail sentence, but that doesn't make him someone from 'The Sopranos,'" Fritz said.

In outlining the case against Cadicamo, Trezevant said he was a member of a crime crew headed by Alite in the late 1990s that conducted at least four armed home invasions of drug dealers.

In one, he and three others, including Malone, posed as FBI agents at the house of a steroid dealer. The dealer and his wife were handcuffed and put on the floor while Malone stood over them with a gun, Trezevant said, while the other three took about $20,000 in cash and $35,000 in steroids.

Fritz said police reports were never filed about the home invasions and said one victim told him it never happened.

During Cadicamo's arrest Tuesday, FBI agents found a pistol that Trezevant said was prohibited for a convicted felon.

Fritz said the gun could have belonged to Cadicamo's wife and Cadicamo told agents where to find it.

During the Trucchio trial, the prosecution said Alite and Trucchio had a close relationship with the younger Gotti, referred to as "Junior."

The only Tampa resident convicted out of four men prosecuted in the Trucchio trial was Terry Scaglione, grandson of Nick Scaglione, a convicted gambling racketeer who was a member of the Trafficante crime family in Tampa during the 1950s and '60s. Terry Scaglione was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison.

Gotti Was Investigated For Years

Federal authorities have been investigating the younger Gotti for years, failing to convict him three times, starting in 2005 on charges he ordered a 1992 attack against Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.

Gotti, who was arrested in front of his wife, Kim, and their six children, is "frustrated" by the investigations into him, said his lawyer, Carnesi.

"One of the frustrating things here is that beginning in 2004, we had three trials in the Southern District of New York, and none of them ended in convictions - all in hung juries," Carnesi said. "Now, after the third hung jury, the idea now that suddenly in Tampa, there is new information, previously unknown about this kid, who has been investigated, ad nauseam for at least the past five years or so, doesn't make any sense to me."

Carnesi said, "They arrested him at his Oyster Bay home. From what I am told, there were a dozen agents and helicopters. They made a real public spectacle out of this."

Gotti was charged in Tuesday's indictment with involvement in the slayings of three men in New York: George Grosso, killed Dec. 20, 1988, in Queens; Louis DiBono, slain Oct. 4, 1990, in the World Trade Center parking garage; and Bruce John Gotterup, killed Nov. 20, 1991, in Queens.

Gotti also was charged with racketeering conspiracy for trafficking in more than five kilos of cocaine, O'Neill said. There are four counts on the second indictment, which names Cadicamo, as well as John A. Burke, 47, in a state prison in New York; David D'Arpino, 33, of Howard Beach, N.Y.; Michael D. Finnerty, 43, of Oceanside, N.Y.; and Guy T. Peden, 47, of Wantagh, N.Y.

Burke and D'Aprino are accused of participating in the July 12, 1996, slaying of John Gebert in Queens. When he pleaded guilty, Malone said he helped plan and carry out Gebert's killing. According to news accounts, Gebert was shot at a bar as part of a mob turf war over drug distribution.

Burke and Peden are also accused of participating in the Gotterup slaying.

Carnesi said he finds it humorous how prosecutors are portraying his client in Tampa, compared with his reputation in New York.

"To suit their purposes in Florida, they are saying he is a big-time drug dealer and was making money for the mob," said Carnesi. "Up here, he is nothing but an over-muscled young kid who might not have been bright, but was his father's son and everyone had to accept him."

Assignment editor Howard Altman and News Channel 8 reporter Samara Sodos contributed to this report. Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini

@tampatrib.com.

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