Paroled killer Harold ‘Kayo’ Konigsberg dies at age 88

          Harold Konigsberg was convicted of the 1961 murder of Anthony Castellito

Convicted mob killer Harold “Kayo” Konigsberg, who strangled a man in Kerhonkson more than 50 years ago, has died, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

He was 88 and died on Nov. 23, the department said.

Konigsberg was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy and grand larceny stemming from the 1961 strangulation death of Anthony “Three Fingers” Castellito Sr. and was sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison. Castellito was killed at his summer home near Kerhonkson.

Konigsberg used a cord from venetian blinds to strangle Castellito and later buried him in New Jersey.

Konigsberg was released May 21, 2012, from the Walsh Regional Medical Unit on the grounds of the Mohawk Correctional Facility in upstate New York, according to information from the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

He moved to Florida after being paroled.

Konigsberg and Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano were convicted of first-degree murder in 1978 for the Castellito killing. Authorities said Provanzano ordered the hit.

A retrial later was ordered for Konigsberg, and he was convicted again in 1982.

At the time, Ulster County District Attorney Michael Kavanagh said Konigsberg got what he deserved.

Kavanagh said the mobster “richly deserve(d)” the outcome. “If there was ever a case that was advertising a call for the death penalty” this was it, Kavanagh, now a retired judge, said at the time.

Lawyer Josh Koplovitz, who served as a legal adviser to Konigsberg during the 1982 trial, said the gangster was difficult. Koplovitz said Konigsberg served as his own attorney during the trial.

“He was a very, very aggressive and demanding person,” Koplovitz said. “He was used to, in his life, getting his own way.”

Koplovitz said the evidence showed Castellito was planning to run against Provenzano for a leadership position in a New Jersey-based Teamsters local.

“‘Tony Pro’ wasn’t sure if a vote were taken that he would win,” Koplovitz said. “So they put together this group.”

One member of that group, Sal Sinno, was flipped by the federal government and served as a witness against Konigsberg, Koplovitz said.

“There was a time when Konigsberg was cross-examining, and Sinno responded to him, ‘Harold, why are you asking me these questions? you were there,’” Koplovitz recalled.

“It was a very interesting experience and one that I will always remember,” Koplovitz said.

Matthew Spireng, a retired Freeman reporter and editor who covered Konigsberg’s 1982 trial, said that the mobster was “a brilliant, frightening bully.”

“One should never speak ill of the dead, but if one were to speak ill of the dead, Harold Konigsberg would be one who you would speak ill of,” Spireng said.

According to the website Mafia Wiki, Konigsberg first became involved in organized crime by working for New Jersey mob boss Abner “Longy” Zwillman. The website says Konigsberg became “one of the crew’s most prolific hit men.”

“Konigsberg was described as a troublemaker from the beginning,” the website says.

Eventually, Konigsberg became a violent and feared racketeer in Jersey City and Manhattan, the website says.

According to a New York Daily News article published in March, Koingsberg was residing in an assisted-living facility in Florida.

“Legendary mob hitman Harold Konigsberg, released from an upstate prison two years ago, has resurfaced at an assisted-living facility in Florida, where the octogenarian flouts the rules and bullies his neighbors,” the Daily News said.

Former longshoreman LaGrasso pleads guilty to extortion

Former dockworkers admit roles in waterfront extortion racket

A former longshoreman today received 12 months in prison for conspiring to extort others in Local 1235 of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) for Christmastime tribute payments, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman and Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch announced.

Salvatore LaGrasso, 58, of Edison, a former supervisor on the New Jersey piers – previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi to conspiring to extort Christmastime tributes from the union members – count three of the second superseding indictment against him. Judge Cecchi imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

LaGrasso admitted that he and others conspired to compel tribute payments from ILA union members, who made the payments based on actual and threatened force, violence and fear.

The timing of the extortions typically coincided with the receipt by certain ILA members of “Container Royalty Fund” checks, a form of year-end compensation.

Charges are still pending against three defendants in the superseding indictment, including a racketeering conspiracy charge against Stephen Depiro, 59, of Kenilworth, New Jersey – a soldier in the Genovese organized crime family of La Cosa Nostra (Genovese family).

Since at least 2005, Depiro has managed the Genovese family’s control over the New Jersey waterfront – including the nearly three-decades-long extortion of port workers in ILA Local 1, ILA Local 1235 and ILA Local 1478. Members of the Genovese family, including Depiro, are charged with conspiring to collect tribute payments from New Jersey port workers at Christmastime each year through their corrupt influence over union officials, including the last three presidents of Local 1235.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Cecchi sentenced LaGrasso to two years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorneys Fishman and Lynch credited the FBI in New Jersey, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford, and in New York, under the direction of Assistant Director in Charge George Venizelos, as well as the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Cheryl Garcia, with the investigation leading to today’s guilty pleas. They also thanked the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor for its cooperation and assistance in the investigation.

MOB INFORMANT SENTENCED TO TIME SERVED IN OZONE PARK HIT

Mob informant Anthony Ruggiano, Jr. last week was sentenced in Brooklyn Federal Court (pictured) to time served.

A mob informant last week was sentenced to time served—three days in federal prison—for his role in a 26-year-old hit in an Ozone Park social club that resulted in the death of his brother-in-law, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and published reports.

Anthony Ruggiano, Jr., 61, last Thursday received his sentence, which also included five years of supervised release, from Judge Jack Weinstein, who according to the Daily News explained to the family of the victim, Frank Boccia, why he could not give Ruggiano a lengthier sentence, calling him “a tool by the government to further destroy the remnants of this Mafia that had been the cause of your grief. Were he sentenced to life, that would destroy this tool.”

Boccia reportedly was shot to death in the garden behind Café Liberty on Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park in 1988. The hit, allegedly sanctioned by Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, was in retaliation for Boccia hitting Ruggiano’s mother during a domestic dispute, according the News.

Ruggiano testified against Gambino capos Dominick Pizzonia—the alleged triggerman in the Boccia hit—Bartolomeo Vernace and Charles Carneglia, assisting federal authorities in solving many murders.

Vernace in May was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 10 years, in part, for the 1981 double homicide of Richard Godkin and John D’Agnese inside the Shamrock Bar in Woodhaven.

Former mob member now serves God, not the mob

Film release depicts man’s life during and after La Cosa Nostra.

Michael Franzese, a former mobster, has made a movie about his life; daughter Julia plays the role of her mother.

After countless menial tasks to prove loyalty, Michael Franzese pledged his life to the Colombo crime family on Halloween in 1975.

Six men took the oath that night inside a Brooklyn catering hall.

Of those, Franzese is the only one alive today – a feat that the born-again Christian attributes to a loving wife, turning away from the mob and dedicating his life to God.

“When we take the oath and violate the policy, then we pay with our life,” said Franzese, a former New York mobster now living in Anaheim Hills.

Franzese’s life as a captain in La Cosa Nostra and his subsequent redemption are chronicled in “God the Father,” set for release Friday in 20 cities across the country, including Cinema City Theatres in Anaheim and the Krikorian Buena Park Metroplex.

The biographical film is premiering on the 39th anniversary of his induction into organized crime – a coincidence, Franzese said. But it reminds that the past haunts his present life.

Franzese, 63, got another death threat just last week.

“I don’t think too many people are going to be happy about this movie coming out,” Franzese said while sipping bottled sparkling water at his favorite Italian restaurant, Baci di Firenze Trattoria in Anaheim.

“I’m not worried about it, but neither do I sell my associates short,” he said. “I don’t take anything for granted.”

Forget “Goodfellas,” “Donnie Brasco” and “The Sopranos.” Rather than glorifying life as a mobster, Franzese said he wanted to tell his story through the prism of atonement.

Documentary-style interviews, stock news footage, dance sequences and recreations tell Franzese’s tale in the 103-minute movie, shot over two years in Bulgaria, Israel and Baton Rouge, La.

Animated scenes display graphic violence and “some of the things that might have occurred,” Franzese said.

His 16-year-old daughter, Julia Franzese, plays her mother in the movie’s dance sequences.

“I was never really aware of my father’s past, because I never really took the time to think about it,” she said. “Watching the movie has been a real eye-opener into his life. But I think my father had to go through all that to be the man and the father that he is now.”

During the early 1970s, Franzese gave up pre-med studies at Hofstra University on Long Island to follow in the footsteps of his father, John “Sonny” Franzese, an underboss for the Colombo crime family.

Michael Franzese said he quickly rose through the ranks to become a capo, or captain, bringing in close to $10 million per week by pocketing state and federal taxes through a bootleg gasoline operation.

Because he brought in so much cash, Franzese said that he wasn’t asked to kill anyone.

“I was one of the guys who earned money, and there were other guys who did this kind of work,” Franzese said carefully. “But, I can’t say that I’m not responsible in a way, because I was a part of it, if you understand what I’m saying.”

When he met Camille Garcia on the set of a movie he produced, “Knights of the City,” in 1984, Franzese was instantly smitten with the dancer from Anaheim and came back to Orange County to meet her family.

“I had an idea that he was in the Mafia, but I didn’t know how much he was involved,” Anaheim community activist Seferino Garcia said about first meeting his future son-in-law.

“I knew my daughter loved him, and he loved her, and they were very sincere about how serious they were,” Garcia said. “But my wife and I made an ultimatum: He had to quit the mob if they were going to get married.”

Franzese said he tried to distance himself from a life in organized crime by the time the couple married in July 1985. Five months later, he was imprisoned after pleading guilty to racketeering and extortion charges connected to the gasoline-tax scheme.

After serving 43 months of a 10-year federal prison sentence, Franzese returned to Anaheim to be with his wife – and so that the authorities could not accuse him of violating parole by associating with the Colombo family.

Franzese was arrested again in 1991 for violating his probation.

“They came up with a minor charge, mainly because I wouldn’t testify” against the Colombo family, Franzese said.

He was thrown in “the hole” and kept isolated for his safety during most of that three-year sentence. The solitude gave Franzese time to reflect on his life while reading the Bible and about 300 books about religion sent by his wife.

“My faith penetrated my heart and my mind while I was in the hole,” Franzese said. “I honestly believe that if I didn’t go back to jail for a second time, then I would probably be dead or behind bars forever.”

Franzese has led a relatively quiet life in Anaheim Hills since his last release from prison in 1994, writing several books about his life and working as a motivational speaker for athletes, law enforcement officers and students.

He regularly attends Eastside Christian Church in Anaheim. Pastor Gene Appel said that Franzese’s life story “is so compelling.”

“There’s a fascination we have about the Mafia, but he’s one of the few guys who actually lived it, managed to walk away, and lived to tell about it,” Appel said.

“His story gives hope to anyone who really wants to change and not be doomed by the actions of their past.”

New Jersey Mafia Bust Proof that Sports Betting Needs Oversight

Acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman says the Genovese Mafia ring was bringing in $1.7 million per year from illegal sports betting ops.

A New Jersey Mafia bust supports the idea that sports betting in the Garden State needs to be legalized in order to keep criminal elements out, according to the state’s Acting Attorney General, John J. Hoffman.

Speaking at a press conference in Newark this week, Hoffman said that the recent break up of a sports betting and loan-sharking operation run by the notorious Genovese crime family highlights the need for sports betting to be dragged “out of the shadows.”

“We have talked before at length about one of the primary efforts in our sports betting journey that we have been on is to try to bring it out of the black market shadows,” said Hoffman. “The Mafia, the organized crime, controlled shadows. And this is exactly where it’s happening.”

His words echo those of former New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne, the man who signed casino gambling into law in the state, who saw the implementation of rigorous gambling regulation as part of the fight against the New Jersey Mob, famously warning the Mafia to keep its “filthy hands off Atlantic City.”

Multimillion Dollar Mafia Operation

Incumbent Governor Chris Christie last week approved a law that will permit sports betting in New Jersey at casinos and racetracks. Currently only four US states, Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon, are able to offer sports betting legally under federal law. The Protection and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) makes it a criminal offense elsewhere in the US; however, Christie’s law seeks to repeal the prohibition, effectively decriminalizing sports betting within the state, which lawmakers see as a way a of revitalizing New Jersey’s lagging economy.

New York Harbor Waterfront Commissioner Michael Murphy told the assembled press that the Mafia operation had been bringing in as much as $1.7 million a year from sports betting alone. The ring, it is believed, had been orchestrated by Vincent Coppola, the 37-year-old son of jailed Genovese capo Michael “Mikey Cigars” Coppola. Murphy said that Coppola used a wire room in Costa Rica to process gambling transactions, while his henchmen in New Jersey vetted new clients and enforced collections of gambling debts. While 11 people were arrested for involvement in the ring, Coppola remains at large.

“When the mafia, when organized crime, takes over and makes money on illegal gambling, where does it go?” asked Murphy. “It doesn’t go to property tax relief, it doesn’t go to senior citizens, and Medicare or prescription programs. It goes to money laundering, it goes to the importation of heroin, and there are kids dying today in New Jersey as a result,” Murphy said.

Murphy also drew a parallel between the outlawing of sports betting and that of alcohol during the Prohibition era, which inadvertently allowed the Mafia to thrive through bootlegging operations. “People drink and people gamble,” he said. “Some of the families that are still engaged in organized crime today, several generations ago enjoyed enormous profits during a time when drinking was illegal.”

However, it seems that not everyone in New Jersey is persuaded by the arguments against the prohibition of sports betting. A poll this week conducted by Rutgers-Eagleton showed that while legalization is broadly supported by some 44 percent of New Jerseyans, another 31 percent said they thought it would make no difference, while 17 percent were staunchly against it.

NJ Transit challenging mobster’s family for $8.1 million of North Hudson land

           Carmine Franco being arrested by the FBI on January 16, 2013

NJ Transit is investing at least another $150,000 to challenge a court ruling that awarded the family of Carmine Franco, an alleged member of the Genovese crime family, $8.1 million of prime real estate located in parts of Hoboken, Weehawken and Union City, according to a report in today’s Hudson County View.

Franco, who was one of 32 individuals arrested in a garbage disposal racketeering scheme last January (pleading guilty in November 2013), owned a 1.89 acre of land in North Hudson, which he has since deeded to his wife and sister-in-law, The Record reported yesterday.

Although the area is essentially just weeds and broken concrete, the property’s prime location was going to be used as part of Governor Chris Christie’s ARC Tunnel project. In the meantime, NJ Transit sued for condemnation in December 2009 and offered the Franco family $990,00 for it, court documents show.

After the ARC Tunnel project was cancelled in mid-2010, the property received little attention, but the value skyrocketed due to luxury condominiums and apartments, as well as NJ Light Rail trains, being built in the surrounding area.

Ever since a Hudson County Superior Court jury ruled that NJ Transit should pay the Franco family $8.1 million,  NJ Transit has spent $2 million on legal fees over various property disputes and has also found that a private contractor cleanup of the Franco property could cost another $2 million, The Record reported.

Through court papers, NJ Transit is adamant that the Franco family should have the responsibility of cleaning up the property.

Franco has also been convicted of mob-related schemes in the 1980′s and 1990′s and is not allowed to participate in the New Jersey waste hauling industry – which is also true in certain portions of New York.

Former mob lawyer passes away aged 82

Attorney James LaRossa who passed away at his home in California.

Renowned defense attorney James M. LaRossa, who represented mob bosses, politicians and judges across a colorful career, died Wednesday at his California home as reported in todays New York Daily News by Larry McShane. He was 82.

LaRossa, dubbed “The Bionic Mouth of White Collar Crime” in a 1977 New York Magazine profile, “died peacefully … after years of outsmarting a variety of illnesses,” according to a post on his Facebook page. “Thank you, sweet prince. Sleep well.”

The well-respected attorney’s wide-ranging client roster included U.S. Rep. Mario Biaggi in the Wedtech corruption case and Gambino family boss “Big Paul” Castellano in the “Commission” prosecution of the heads of the city’s five Mafia families. The Gambino family boss was in LaRossa’s office shortly before his December 1985 execution outside Sparks Steak House in a mob coup ordered by John Gotti.

In a strange twist, the lawyer later represented Joseph (Joe the German) Watts — identified by the feds as a backup shooter in the Castellano hit. LaRossa also repped Genovese crime family head Vincent (The Chin) Gigante during his lengthy run as one of the city’s deans of criminal defense.

Federal prosecutors revealed in 1991 that Gotti, on a secretly recorded government tape, once threatened to kill LaRossa if the lawyer refused to take him on as a client. LaRossa laughed the allegation off.

“There is no doubt in my mind this was meant to be a joke and no more than that,” the lawyer said. “He and I have known each other for 15 years and he wouldn’t say anything like that about me other than in jest.”

He famously won a precedent-setting 1972 Supreme Court case, U.S. vs. John Giglio, where the nation’s highest court ruled the government was obliged to surrender all evidence that could damage the credibility of its witnesses.

LaRossa, according to a People magazine profile, routinely worked 80-hour weeks defending his clients. He told the magazine that defending the guilty was not among his concerns.

“I’m not proving their innocence,” he explained. “I’m attempting to stop the prosecution from proving their guilt.”

The mailman’s son, the Fordham Law School graduate wanted to pursue a law career from an early age. But he first spent two years in the Marines during the Korean War before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York under Robert F. Kennedy for three years.

LaRossa then switched to the defense side of the aisle.

“I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing,” he once said. “I see good lawyers as the last of the gladiators.”

He brought the zeal of a fighter to the courtroom, quickly establishing his reputation as one of the top legal advocates for defendants across the city. New York Magazine, in a 1995 article, cited him as one of the city’s top attorneys.

Former ILA local president pleads guilty to extortion conspiracy

Vincent ‘The Vet’ Aulisi

A former president of International Longshoremen’s Association 1235 in Newark, New Jersey, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for extorting his members for “Christmas tribute” payments to the Genovese crime family.

The sentence for Vincent Aulisi, 82, followed the 30-month sentence imposed last year on his son, Edward, for his role in a long-running scheme to collect part of workers’ year-end container royalty checks and forward the money to the mob.

Vincent Aulisi’s attorney said his client did not profit from the scheme but inherited a practice that had been around for nearly three decades when he became Local 1235 president in 2006.

Edward Aulisi was caught on a government wiretap in 2007 assuring convicted waterfront racketeer Michael Coppola, a fugitive at the time, that the “Christmases” had nearly doubled since Vincent Aulisi took office. Coppola is serving a 16-year sentence for extorting Local 1235 members.

In 2010, Edward Aulisi invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying in a Waterfront Commission hearing that highlighted his no-show job as a checker at APM Terminals.

Seven others are scheduled for sentencing during the next eight weeks after pleading guilty in the Christmas tribute case. They include Thomas Leonardis, who succeeded Aulisi as Local 1235 president, and Robert Ruiz, a Local 1235 delegate. All of the ILA officials and members have been removed from the union.

Still awaiting trial are Albert Cernadas, a former ILA international executive vice president who headed Local 1235 from 1981 to 2006; Nunzio LaGrasso, former secretary-treasurer of Local 1478; and Stephen Depiro, who prosecutors say oversaw Genovese rackets on the New Jersey waterfront.

Their trials have been delayed several times by U.S. District Judge Claire Cecchi, who cited “the nature of the case and its complexity” and agreed to grant defendants’ attorneys more time to review evidence.

Government evidence in the case includes thousands of documents and phone records and hundreds of photographs, among other things, and “amounts to a virtual warehouse of information and data,” Cernadas’ attorney said in a court filing.

Feds spread search for Whitey Bulger’s cash to Ireland

James “Whitey” Bulger’s is believed to have hidden money in property in Ireland as FBI continue the hunt for his cash.

FBI forensic investigators are continuing to track Whitey Bulgers cash to Ireland as estimates of his hidden wealth top €100m in property, cash, jewels, safety desposit boxes and covert off-shore accounts.

Security sources close to the FBI investigations claim that the comparatively small sums found in safe deposit boxes in Dublin, London and Boston during his time on the run amounting to little more a couple of hundred thousand dollars is a fraction of his hidden wealth, and have now targeted his property empire which is believed to be extensive and to include many properties across Ireland.

While some of his family were compromised with links to his previous small cash holdings the big prize being chased by investigators are his property empire. Forensic investigators close to the case believe that Whitey used his IRA connections to launder huge sums of his illicit gains.

FBI teams over the last decade have travelled over to Ireland in search of his cash reserves and property empire but the laundering expertise of his IRA comrades have eluded them.

The FBI agents were themselves criticized for bringing their golf clubs over to Ireland in their hunt for Whitey’s money and indeed in the hunt for Whitey while he was on the run for 16 years.

The most infamous mobster who is now serving life imprisonment was captured living the life of a pensioner in Los Angeles with a million dollars in cash hidden in the walls of the apartment.

During his time on the run he was believed to have spent some time in Ireland and some of his key associates were involved in a number of IRA gun running expeditions.

Kevin Cullen, an author of several books on Whitey Bulger told the Sunday World that the gangster who was the inspiration for ‘The Departed”, had allegedly links with Ballybunion and Galway which were followed up extensively over the decades.

“Whitey did have a safety deposit box in a Dublin bank, in Collgee Green area  (The Bank of Ireland). The Feds seized stuff from it when he was on the run.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he squirrelled money away in many different places, certainly in the US, but also in Europe. He was in Galway in the late 1980s”, Cullen told the Sunday World.

It is no surprise to Cullen that Ireland could be a home for Whitey’s money because while he was active and on the run his connections with Ireland were strong.

“Whitey stashed money in a lot of places because he had to have contingency plans, knowing that his FBI protectors could not protect him forever.”

The author of ‘Whitey Bulger’, America’s most wanted gangster and the Manhunt that brought him to Justice’ told the Sunday World that the “FBI went searching for him in Ireland many times, but the leads were specious at best. I know a Garda who had dealings with them and he said some FBI agents

brought their golf clubs over. I guess they thought Whitey might be at Lahinch or Ballybunion”, Cullen said this week.

“The end of Whitey has killed off the Irish mob in Boston and even if his money is still out there. Boston has changed completely in the time that Whitey was on the run. There is no Irish mob left. All dead or in prison or became informants”, Cullen said.

At best Whitey’s money will be reclaimed by the banks as dormant accounts or absorbed into republican coffers by their old money launderers.

What is certain is that Whitey has no intention of telling anyone where is money is now or in the future and he doesn’t have much of that left.

Alleged ‘acting boss’ of New England Mafia arrested

Anthony “Spucky” Spagnolo as he left the Moakley Federal Courthouse   Thursday.

They are in their 70s, seemed to have trouble hearing, and appeared to prefer the comfort of casual clothes. One of them wore socks with a pair of sandals.

But there they were in federal court in handcuffs Thursday, two alleged members of the New England Mafia, including alleged acting don Antonio L. “Spucky” Spagnolo, charged with threatening to affect business through extortion, a charge that carries a punishment of up to 20 years in prison according to a report by Milton J. Valencia in the Boston Globe.

Spagnolo, 72, also known as Crazy Eyes, and reputed “made man” Pryce “Stretch” Quintina, 74, allegedly extorted thousands of dollars in protection payments from a video poker machine company and a social club, authorities said.

Both men reputedly represent the old guard of the Patriarca crime family, their service dating back to the Mafia’s glory days, when the late boss Gennaro Angiulo controlled the Boston underworld from the 1960s to the early 1980s.

“They go back in history,” said State Police Detective Lieutenant Stephen P. Johnson, who used to run the unit that investigates organized crime.

He said Spagnolo was deeply involved in drug dealing, a capo in the family.

Quintina was a Mafia soldier, but his uncle Charles “Q-Ball” Quintina, was also a capo.

Spagnolo and Quintina have shown their loyalties before, maintaining in court hearings in the early 1990s that they were not “made” members of any crime family, even as they pleaded guilty to Mafia-related activities.

Both men were allegedly at the infamous October 1989 Mafia induction meeting in Medford that was secretly recorded by the FBI.

Now, authorities say that Spagnolo has been serving as acting boss of the fragmented crime family, a skeleton of what the organization once was. Former boss Anthony L. DiNunzio was sentenced in Rhode Island in 2012 to 78 months in prison for racketeering. He is the brother of Carmen “The Big Cheese” DiNunzio, who was sentenced to prison in Massachusetts for bribery.

Luigi Manocchio, Anthony DiNunzio’s 86-year-old predecessor, was sentenced to 5½ years in prison for extorting protection payments from strip clubs.

And Mark Rossetti, one of the most feared captains in the New England mob, is in prison in Massachusetts for extortion and bookmaking.

Spagnolo and Quintina have served prison terms themselves. Spagnolo pleaded guilty to numerous racketeering and drug dealing charges in 1991 and was sentenced to nine years. Quintina was sentenced in 1995 to 7½ years. He was charged with setting up Angelo Patrizzi for murder in 1981, though he pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in an agreement with prosecutors.

In the most recent case, Spagnolo allegedly ordered Quintina to collect monthly protection payments from the owners of a video poker machine company, Constitution Vending Co., totaling more than $50,000 between 2004 and 2012.

For years, according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday, Constitution installed video poker machines in bars and social clubs for use in illegal gambling and split the proceeds with the bar owners. One of Constitution’s machines was installed at the Revere Moose Lodge, the indictment alleges.

The Mafia allegedly protected Constitution’s business by driving out potential competitors, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

But, according to the indictment, the Moose Lodge negotiated a deal with a new company, to receive larger profits. Spagnolo allegedly met with those involved and threatened that he would not permit them to remove Constitution’s machines from the Revere Moose Lodge.

“As a result of defendant Anthony Spagnolo’s meeting with and threats, [the victims] did not install [new] video poker machines at the Revere Moose Lodge,” the indictment alleges.

Spagnolo and Quintina were released to their homes Thursday and must wear electronic monitoring bracelets.

“There are some risk factors, giving the nature of the charges and the defendant’s criminal history,” Assistant US Attorney Seth B. Kosto said in court, referring to Spagnolo.