Feds: Retired N.Y. Cops Were Mafia Hitmen

Guardian

Friday March 11, 2005 12:01 PM
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Two retired police detectives living in Las Vegas led double lives as Mafia hitmen while on the force and gave confidential information to the mob for more than a decade, federal prosecutors charged.

One of the suspects, Louis Eppolito, wrote an autobiography titled ``Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob,'' which dealt with, among other things, what he said were false charges of Mafia involvement.

He and his former partner, Stephen Caracappa, were arrested Wednesday night at a restaurant off the Las Vegas Strip, law enforcement officials said Thursday. The pair have been living in Las Vegas since retiring in the early 1990s.

Each is charged with eight murders, two attempted murders, murder conspiracy, obstruction of justice, drug distribution and money laundering.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4857664,00.html

The Independent
By David Usborne in New York
11 March 2005


In another setback for the New York Mob, federal agents have rounded up 32 members of the Gambino Mafia clan, including its acting boss, after a sting operation involving an FBI agent who infiltrated the gangster underworld, posing for two years as a specialist in moving stolen goods.

The FBI made the arrests after it became clear that the mole, in his late forties, was on the brink of being inducted as a full member of the Gambino family. He was being compared yesterday to the FBI agent Joseph Pistone, who, under the alias of Donnie Brasco, infiltrated the competing Bonanno crime family 25 years ago. His work, which severely damaged the clan, was made into a Hollywood film.

It was the move to make the agent a member of the clan that spurred the FBI to take action this week. "Had we left him out on the street much longer, the Gambino family ranks would actually have increased by one," Pasquale D'Amuro, the New York director of the FBI told journalists.

Among those brought in was Arnold "Zeke" Squitieri, described as the acting head of the Gambinos, a family once led by John Gotti - the so-called Dapper Don - who died in prison in 2002. Also in custody yesterday was the alleged underboss of the clan, Anthony "The Genius" Megale.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=618838