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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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12-15-01 Three in Gambino Crime Family Convicted in Florida. Saturday December 15 1:01 PM ET MIAMI (Reuters) - Three alleged members of the notorious Gambino crime family were convicted of racketeering and two of them face life in prison for the murder of a stripper, authorities said on Saturday. The U.S. attorney in Miami said Anthony ``Tony Pep'' Trentacosta, 62, who supervised the South Florida operations of the family that is headed by the jailed John Gotti, was convicted of racketeering conspiracy on Friday. Trentacosta, of Atlanta, was acquitted of taking part in the 1999 murder. Federal prosecutors alleged the crime business was ran from a pizza parlor in an upscale community near Miami Beach under the supervision of Frederick Massaro, also known as ``Fat Freddie'' and ``Ten Percent Freddie.'' Massaro and Ariel Hernandez, 36, of Hialeah, Florida, were found guilty of racketeering charges, conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, passing counterfeit checks and nu! merous counts of bank fraud. Hernandez was convicted of the murder of Jeanette Smith, a 22-year-old exotic dancer, whose body was found in March 1999 stuffed in a box in the Florida Everglades. Prosecutors alleged she was ordered killed by the Gambino family after false speculation she was a FBI informant. Massaro, who was also convicted of loan-sharking, allegedly ordered Smith's killing and was accused of planning to kill Hernandez once the dancer's body was discovered, authorities said. Hernandez and Massaro both face sentences of life in prison. Trentacosta faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.Eight others have pleaded guilty in the investigation. Gotti, currently battling cancer in a prison hospital, was sentenced to life in prison in 1992 after years of fending off government charges.
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