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'There Is No Gambino Crime Family,' Defendant Says

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 14, 2008

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  James Cadicamo

TAMPA - A local man prosecutors say was part of the Gambino organized crime family says he is being prosecuted under harsh federal laws because he knows people from his old New York neighborhood.

"I'm guilty of association. That's what I'm guilty of," said James V. Cadicamo, 33, who was arrested in August along with four other men and charged with participating in a vast racketeering conspiracy under the umbrella of the Gambino crime family. At the same time, John A. "Junior" Gotti was named in a separate, similar indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Tampa.

"There is no Gambino crime family," Cadicamo said in one of two telephone conversations from the Citrus County Jail, where he is being held without bail. "That's the thing I can't believe. Where's the Gambino crime family?

"You can't imagine how I feel in here, what they did to me," Cadicamo said. "They just take your life away from you and not even care."

He said prosecutors brought the case in Tampa, in the Middle District of Florida, because "they know it's the hardest district in the country." Here, he said, "either you're a rat or your go to trial."

Trying to win a trial charged under the federal racketeering statute is unbelievable, he said. "You could have robbed a piece of gum 30 years ago and be charged with it today.

"It's crazy," he said. "I don't know how the government gets away with what they do, the federal government. … The government relies on admitted murderers to bring charges and ruin your life."

He said he was 9 years old when the conspiracy alleged in the indictment began.

Cadicamo said he doesn't even know three of the four men who were indicted with him. Allegations that the others were involved in murders, he said, are going to "bleed over" on him when he goes on trial with them. He denied prosecution assertions that he tried to have someone kill or beat up Michael Malone, a cooperating witness in a previous Gambino trial in Tampa.

Cadicamo said he doesn't know John A. Gotti but did know Gotti's younger brother, Peter, in school.

Cadicamo said he's being targeted by informants who are making up stories to help themselves get out of legal trouble.

Among them, he said, is John Alite.

Cadicamo managed Club Mirage, a city nightclub that prosecutors say was used by the Gambinos to hide the proceeds of criminal activities. He was sued by John Alite over ownership of the club. Prosecutors said Alite was the leader of a Gambino crew that for a time fought to control the local valet parking business.

Alite was named in an indictment in another Gambino case that resulted in convictions for four defendants, including Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio, a captain in the Gambino crime family.

Alite fled to Brazil during that 2006 Trucchio trial but has been extradited. He has yet to go on trial. There has been no activity in Alite's case since February, and Cadicamo said a prosecutor told his attorneys that Alite was cooperating with law enforcement.

Alite's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

A prosecutor said during Cadicamo's bail hearing that Cadicamo sent money to Alite while he was on the lam in Latin America. Cadicamo's attorney alleged in court papers that Alite extorted money from Cadicamo.

Cadicamo didn't want to give details about the extortion claim, saying it would come out in court.

"John Alite was kicked out of the neighborhood 20, 25 years ago," Cadicamo said. "He had a falling out with Junior. Junior thought he was a rat."

Cadicamo said that had he known about the racketeering law, he would have moved to California and pretended he didn't know anyone from his old neighborhood.

He said he hasn't even met his baby daughter, who was born four weeks ago, and prosecutors are moving to take his house.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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