Three More Arrested Today For McDonald's Drive-Thru Murder Of Luchese Associate Sally Daz

The net has widened in the murder probe of Luchese associate Sylvester (Sally Daz) Zottola, with Larry McShane of the New York Daily News reporting that three more co-conspirators were arrested today.

Salvatore Zotolla's shooting this past summer was caught on videotape.
Salvatore Zotolla's shooting this past summer was caught on videotape.


The trio was nabbed for the murder of Sally Daz, 71, at a Bronx McDonald's drive-thru, as well as the summertime shooting of Sally Daz's son outside the family's home in the Bronx. 

The attempted hit on the son, according to a cooperating witness, was an effort to lure the father into the shooter's cross-hairs, McShane reported.

Identified in a superseding federal indictment, McShane reported, were Arthur (Scary) Codner, Himen (Ace) Ross, and Kalik McFarlane.




“The defendants, together with others, with malice aforethought, did unlawfully kill Sylvester Zottola willfully, deliberately, maliciously and with premeditation,” the indictment read, according to McShane.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Gerdes said at a hearing today that "there was a great deal of electronic surveillance for lawyers to review in the case," McShane reported.

Codner, 30, of New Hampton, Orange County, McFarlane, 36, of Brooklyn, and Ross, 32, of the Bronx, were all held without bail, and are due back in court on Jan. 18.

Herman (Taliban) Blanco, 33, and Bushawn (Shelz) Sheton, 34, were previously arrested for the shootings of the father and son. Linking those two suspects were telephone records indicating frequent calls between them.

The new indictment accused the five of using cellphones to arrange the killing of Zottola. Prosecutors also noted in court filings that the conspiracy had been planned for months.

The charges against the suspects make them all eligible for the death penalty.

On October 4, Zottola was shot dead, having been hit once in the head and four times in the torso while waiting in his SUV at the drive-through window. Law enforcement quickly described the shooting as a "Mafia-style assassination." 

As per reports, the suspect walked up on Sally Daz while he waited for his coffee and fired multiple shots from his position at the passenger window. The shooter then fled the scene.

Earlier this year, on July 11, Sally Daz's 41-year-old son, Salvatore was injured when a gunman opened fire on him outside his Bronx home. The shooting was captured on surveillance video.

The year preceding his murder was a difficult one for Zottola, who was brutally murdered over a slot-machine business he'd been running for decades, the feds have claimed. Allegedly the order to kill him came from Albanian gangsters who coveted that joker poker empire.

In September 2017, the elder Zottola was walking near his Bronx home when an assailant clubbed him over the head, sources said.

Then two months later, a gun-wielding thug tried unsuccessfully to force Sylvester Zottola into a car at Meagher Avenue and the Throgs Neck Expressway.

And late one evening in December 2017, Sylvester Zottola walked in on three burglars ransacking his home. One intruder plunged a knife into Sally Daz's neck, wounding him critically and sending him to Jacobi Medical Center.



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