Acting Capo in Bonanno Family Slammed with 14-Year Prison Sentence for Terrorizing Howard Beach

A Brooklyn federal court judge yesterday (August 15) sentenced acting Bonanno capo Ronald Giallanzo to 14 years behind bars for running a loansharking operation that she said terrorized a Queens neighborhood for nearly 20 years.


Acting Bonanno capo Ronald Giallanzo

Giallanzo, whose uncle is Bonanno mobster Vincent Asaro, and nine other Bonanno members and associates were arrested last year on a broad swath of criminal charges, including racketeering, kidnapping, robbery, and attempted murder in Brooklyn federal court.

Ronnie G pleaded guilty in March to running the loansharking ring and was ordered to forfeit his $1.25 million mansion on 86th Street in Howard Beach, which he "built with his ill-gotten gains." On top of that, he still owes $268,000 in restitution to five loansharking victims.




Prosecutors said the 48-year-old acting capo ran gambling and extortion rackets in Howard Beach since 1998. As per the indictment, Giallanzo and an associate once dragged a victim into a car and beat him until he soiled himself. 

Giallanzo and his crew also fought a war against a rival drug dealer, see: 

Acting Capo Ronald Giallanzo and Crew Engaged in "Bloody" Shootouts with Rivals

Prior to sentencing, Judge Dora Irizarry "unleashed her wrath" on Giallanzo's defense attorney for blaming Ronnie G's loanshark clients, as the New York Post reported

The attorney, Elizabeth Macedonio, who represented Asaro in the Lufthansa trial (which the Bonnano capo won, only to be hammered later for other crimes) had sought leniency by saying some of the extortion victims knew what they were getting into. 

The judge begged to differ, blasting Macedonio with: “That’s like saying a prostitute who is out there selling her body might get raped, but what’s the difference. As they say, ‘you sleep with dogs, you get fleas.’ But that doesn’t excuse the offense.”

When she turned her focus on Ronnie G, she said: “You threatened to have people beaten with bats, you had them beaten with pipes, it’s like in the movies. But this isn’t a movie."

The mobster yesterday told the court he would likely miss the marriages of his children and the deaths of his parents, saying, “I can blame no one but myself.”

Meanwhile, prosecutor Lindsay Gerdes called him a “puppeteer,” who never learned from his mistakes. (Ronnie G had been arrested multiple times.) She also accused him of using hands-on work at Ground Zero, which left him with cancer, "as a ploy for sympathy whenever he got into trouble," as the Post reported.

“He argued the same thing before,” Gerdes said. “When does time wash that out?”

“I have to wonder, what does it take,” the judge said. “I don’t know you can pull away from this, Mr. Giallanzo. I think it’s ingrained in who you are.”

She warned his four children just before passing down his sentence, saying,“It is better to live a humble life than one spent constantly looking over your shoulder.”

Federal sentencing guidelines recommended Giallanzo get just more than seven years prison, she slapped him with 12 years, plus two more years for violating his supervised release.

As sobbing kin fled the gallery, the red-faced man turned toward the remaining loved ones and mouthed “I’m sorry.”

“It was excessive,” the defense attorney said as she left. “We’ll certainly be pursing his right to appeal.”


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