Cosa Nostra News

Carmine Gotti Agnello Jr., a grandson of late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, copped a plea deal yesterday for running an illegal auto scrapyard in Queens. A Queens criminal court judge reduced the charges to a misdemeanor in exchange for a $1,000 fine and a $4,605 forfeiture. His lawyer Stephen Mahler says Agnello is a legitimate businessman who had simply been caught between licenses. "His license had expired and he’d already been approved for a new one,” Mahler said, adding that his client didn't feel compelled to go to trial to prove that claim. Agnello's license lapsed in December 2016, and he was arrested in July 2018 and arraigned on vehicle-dismantling and falsifying business records charges. Agnello’s business, LSM Auto Parts & Recycling, on Liberty Ave., in Richmond Hill, did not have a license to crush cars, authorities said. The shop crushed about 400 vehicles between Feb. 14 and April 5. Agnello tried to register the business in...

Carmine "The Bull" Agnello accepted a plea deal on June 1 to avoid prison time, but he must pay the $180,000 tab for the investigation by law enforcement. It was called originally enough "Operation Goodfella." Agnello copped and will serve no prison time. Agnello, a former member of the Gambino crime family, was arrested nearly two years ago during a raid of his Cleveland auto body shop. He faced more than a dozen charges, including racketeering and conspiracy. He was charged with running an illegal $4.2 million car-scrapping scheme.

In a previous story, we incorrectly noted that Victoria Gotti's ex-husband,  Carmine Agnello, was is in jail pending a racketeering case . That's not the case, as a Gotti spokesperson icily remarked in a Facebook message. Agnello is out on a $100,000 personal bond, which a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge set. Agnello also was to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet. Agnello is charged with running a $3 million scrap metal scam out of his Cleveland auto body and salvage yard. One report raised the question of whether Agnello was following a common practice in the scrap recycling business. In the story, Cleveland 19 noted that it had submitted to Cuyahoga County video of what may be evidence of another scrap yard doing something similar to what Agnello is accused of doing.

Peter Gotti departs Queens Criminal Court after bail hearing. Federal agents conducted authorized searches of Victoria Gotti 's estate in the Long Island town of Old Westbury, as well as an auto-parts store located in the New York City borough of Queens. The auto-parts shop is owned by Victoria's ex-husband Carmine Agnello, who is in jail pending a racketeering case , but it is run by the former couple's three sons. The sons "appear to be the targets of the probe rather than their mom," the New York Daily News reported , adding that a federal prosecutor from the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's tax fraud section is overseeing the inquiry, which appears to have originated with the IRS. Victoria's ex-husband's lawyer declined to comment for the News story, which referenced the 2015 trial of Bonanno mobster Vincent Asaro (who was found not guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court), noting: A snitch secretly taped a conversation inside...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE When wiseguys are in prison, does rank matter? Carmine Agnello held his own against three. Opinions vary. On the inside all made guys are equal, some say, while others have said rank is less of an issue. Still, supposedly there are  official Cosa Nostra bosses serving life sentences:  Vic Amuso, Peter Gotti and Carmine Persico. So rank must matter, but it seems to depend on the place, the time and possibly the dynamic of those inside the unit. I recently heard about something that happened involving Lee D'Avanzo when he was a resident of  MDC  Brooklyn. The source was there at the time, but on a different floor. What happened made Carmine Agnello so furious with Lee, supposedly a sit down or two took place over the matter. (Agnello was made; Lee wasn't (or isn't.)) Agnello and D'Avanzo were housed in Brooklyn's MDC along with Francis "BF" Guerra -- the only three Italians on the main population floor at th...

The married couple. John, stupenda sposa ... REVISED, EXPANDED The late John Gotti 's grandson, John Gotti Agnello , was married this past weekend. Agnello, the son of Victoria Gotti and Carmine Agnello and one of the stars of A&E's Growing Up Gotti, wed his longtime love Alina Sanchez, a physician’s assistant. According to Page Six , the 500 guests gave gifts of at least $5,000. The couple left the evening with $2.5 million.* The event took place at the Oheka Castle in Long Island and went from 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, and ended at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Carmine Agnello. His legendary former father-in-law, John Gotti, may have been unfair when he said those famous words about him ("Does he get in the backseat of the car and think someone has stolen the steering wheel?") but one thing is perfectly clear. Carmine Agnello likes to steal (at least according to Cleveland's Cuyahoga County Prosecutor). A source formerly active in the Gambino crime family told us that Agnello is actually a pretty intelligent businessman, only he's beset with certain flaws, the chief one being he has the mindset of a dime-store thug. By this we refer to his predilection for sparking street fights with uniformed police officers over parking tickets.... "The [NYPD] set up shop across the street from him with a rival business" as part of an investigation. "So what does he do? He threatens them, sets fires and breaks their windows." Agnello was indicted and sentenced to years in prison for his scrap meta...

In 1995, a member of the Gambino crime family plotted the violent murder of John Alite and anybody in the car with him, according to a former Gambino associate directly involved in the conspiracy who was going to be one of the shooters. Alite was marked for death. Stephen Newell, about whom we've previously written, told us the  hit was to be staged  at a towing company/auto-body shop in Queens at the intersection of Crossbay Boulevard and Redding Street.  Alite would pull up in his car to meet someone -- and two men would open fire from a passing van. One of the gunmen, arrested on an unrelated charge, revealed the plot, prompting the FBI to visit Alite with a warning.   This is only one such plot; there were others.  W e caught up with Stephen Newell a few weeks ago. He'd seen our story  and had some corrections and amendments. Newell is an interesting person. He is mentioned in both Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Juni...

Stephen Newell  was a low-level mob associate. He was born and bred in  Bushwick , Brooklyn. From the age of 10 he lived in Queens and much later moved to Staten Island. His uncle, Saverio "Sammy" Galosso, was a member of the  Genovese crime family  under  Vincent "The Chin" Gigante . He died in 1986. Stevie Newell Stevie, earlier in his life, worked under John Gotti's son-in-law, Carmine Agnello, after Carmine became a member of the Gambino crime family. (Carmine is living somewhere in Ohio today, we've heard.) Agnello was married to Victoria Gotti at the time. Newell does not fit the cliched definition of the opportunistic street guy as is usually portrayed in movies, books and newspapers. He was arrested, held without bail and formally charged with the murder of Bruce Gotterup, who himself had been convicted by the mob of not using common sense and repeatedly disrupting the business of a Mafia-connected bar in Queens. In 1991, Gotteru...