‘Key’ to city’s own ‘El Chapo’ prison escape
THE NEPHEW of acquitted Lufthansa heist suspect Vinny Asaro was busted Tuesday by Brooklyn federal prosecutors for running a lucrative loansharking business.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors say Ronald (Ronnie G.) Giallanzo, an acting capo in the Bonanno crime family, raked in millions while roughing up loan deadbeats.
Giallanzo, 46, and the nine other crime family members and associates earned more than $26 million over 17 years of loansharking, illegal gambling, robbery and extortion, prosecutors said.
The feds want Giallanzo and some of the other defendants to forfeit their lavish pads as payback for their deeds.
According to court papers, when Giallanzo bought his Howard Beach, Queens, home on an unspecified date, it was a modest residence.
But he used his money to create a mammoth multistory monument to his wealth and gangland clout, said prosecutors.
In one instance, they said Giallanzo got an unnamed Bonanno associate to bring him a customer who owed him $250,000 and wasn’t making the weekly interest payments. The pair beat the customer until he soiled himself as Giallanzo screamed, “Where’s the f---ing money?”
Another time, Giallanzo grilled a customer about how much he owed.
“If you lie to me, I’m going to f--- you up,” Giallanzo allegedly said.
Giallanzo even managed to run the loansharking business when he was sent to prison in 2007 for an earlier federal racketeering conviction, said prosecutors.
Giallanzo and another man are also charged with plotting the unsuccessful murder of someone who robbed Giallanzo’s crew. Giallanzo’s underlings and the victim allegedly shot at each other in Howard Beach several times.
Giallanzo pleaded not guilty Tuesday, when arraigned on the indictment. He was held without bail for the time being, but Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon said Giallanzo could come back to seek bail at a later date.
One of his associates, Evan Greenberg, then allegedly talked about grabbing one guy by his ankles — “his head hit the concrete.”
The defendants are looking at up to 20 years in prison.
Acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde said the arrests “reveal La Costra Nostra’s continued presence in the community . . . . With these arrests, the defendants will be held accountable for their wide-ranging and destructive conduct.”
“Obviously, the allegations are serious, but my client adamantly denies them,” said Giallanzo’s lawyer, Elizabeth Macedonio.
Giallanzo could be seeing his uncle in court. Asaro (photo), 82, beat the rap in the infamous 1978 JFK robbery during a 2015 trial.
But the Bonanno capo is now under indictment in Brooklyn Federal Court for having associates torch a car that cut into his traffic lane.
The grandson of late Gambino boss John Gotti is also a defendant in Asaro’s case. Gotti allegedly drove the getaway car that escaped a cop who spotted the arson. AN EAST HARLEM escapee who likened himself to Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo likely swiped the key to open his cell and climbed out the window, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Arthur Collins is on trial in Manhattan Supreme Court on drug possession and escape charges for the 25th Precinct stationhouse stunt in July 2015.
Collins later surrendered at the courthouse, after he saw his face on a wanted poster.
At the time, Collins boasted that he was like the famous druglord Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman, who escaped from a high-security Mexican prison through a tunnel.
His attorney Rick Pasacreta argued the case has been mishandled. A LION-HEARTED woman stopped traffic Tuesday on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to save a cat that was stranded on the side of the highway.
Anne Levin, 43, grabbed the fearful feline, which has a massive tail injury, from beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.
“We just put blinkers on and went really slow,” Levin said as she and the cat waited in a vet’s office. “New York drivers were shockingly polite . . . . Everyone went around us.”
Levin, the Brooklyn Bridge Animal Welfare Coalition president and Brooklyn Cat Café manager, heard about the cat on a Facebook animal rescue group. She tossed a towel over the kitty and pushed it into a carrier.“It looks like she was probably thrown out,” Levin said.