Also Admit To Drug Sales, Rackets
Two Howard Beach men who are reputed members of the Gambino crime family pled guilty last Friday, Feb. 17, in federal court to charges that they conspired to traffic women from Eastern Europe into the U.S. to work at strip clubs in Queens and Long Island, it was reported.
Law enforcement sources said 34-year-old Alphonse Trucchio, an alleged captain in the Gambino family, and 37-year-old Christopher Colon, a reputed associate, also entered guilty pleas to charges related to a January 2011 indictment for racketeering, drug trafficking, assault, extortion and other crimes.
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman, who accepted their guilty pleas, scheduled sentencing for Truc- chio on May 17; Colon’s sentencing is set to take place on June 4. Both men face up to life in prison.
According to federal law enforcement sources, Colon and Trucchio extorted payments from the owners of adult entertainment clubs in Queens and Long Island for protection. They also allegedly conspired with other individuals to smuggle women into the U.S. from Russia and other Eastern European nations in order to work at the strip joints.
Each of the women were reportedly provided with visas and false job offers for positions such as waitressing. Through an investigation, law enforcement sources determined that the women were instead assigned to work at the strip clubs once they arrived on American soil.
The terms of their visas prohibited them from working in the adult entertainment industry, it was noted.
In pleading guilty in court last Friday, Trucchio and Colon also admitted to taking part in a large-scale drug trade operation in Queens at various points between the late 1980s and 2010. As a result, hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana were distributed along with thousands of ecstacy and vicodin pills sold on the black market.
Both suspects also participated in a loansharking scheme on behalf of the Gambino crime family; federal law enforcement agents noted that the suspects, and others involved in the operation, also assaulted or threatened to harm borrowers who did not make payments in a timely manner.
Trucchio also admitted to participating in a pair of assaults in 2008 and 2009, while Colon pled guilty to a charge that he stabbed an individual during the 2008 incident.
Finally, Trucchio and Colon also allegedly participated in illegal bookmaking and underground sports betting operations run by the crime organization.
Two of their co-conspirators and reputed Gambino members, Michael Roccaforte and Anthony Moscatiello, also pled guilty last Friday to charges related to drug sale, racketeering, extortion and gaming operations. Both suspects also face a maximum term of life in prison when they are sentenced on May 17.
“For those who believe La Cosa Nostra’s criminal activities and influence are on the decline, the sweeping charges in this case and today’s guilty please should disabuse them of that notion,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara in a statement last Friday. “They should also make clear that this office is as committed as ever to rooting out the dangerous and deadly presence of organized crime.”
Bharara thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service for their work in the ongoing investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elie Honig, Daniel Chung and Natalie Lamarque prosecuted the cases on behalf of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Organized Crime Unit.
