Gun-running mobster gets 6 more years

A brutal Mafia veteran once featured on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List was sentenced Tuesday to six years in prison for transporting an assortment of deadly weapons.

Ex-con Paul Ragusa, 48, of Brooklyn, was still in a halfway house when he was arrested in November 2017 after volunteering his services to an FBI informant. He was busted after delivering two AK-47 assault rifles, one M-16 rifle, six other firearms and a silencer from a Long Island warehouse to an undercover FBI car parked in Queens.

The informant asked Ragusa about a week before the gun delivery if he knew anybody willing to do the job, authorities said.

“Yeah, me!” replied the enthusiastic Ragusa, an associate of both the Bonanno and Gambino crime families. “I’ll do it!”

According to authorities, Ragusa had also agreed to commit a murder-for-hire at the cooperating witness’ request. Ragusa, once the head of the notorious “Giannini Crew” in the 1990s, offered to plunge an ice pick through the target’s head, authorities alleged.

“While serving a prior sentence for violent crimes involving machine guns, Ragusa was ready and willing to transport more guns, including assault rifles,” said Brooklyn Federal Prosecutor Richard Donoghue. “[This] sentence incapacitates the defendant, who clearly continues to pose a danger to the community.”

Ragusa received $2,000 cash for delivering the guns and surrendering his freedom. He was at the tail end of a 19-year sentence imposed after he surrendered to the FBI in January 1998.

When the killer of fashion designer Gianni Versace committed suicide in the July 1997, Ragusa joined the FBI’s notorious list. He was later featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”

The fugitive, who underwent cosmetic surgery and dyed his hair canary yellow to avoid arrest, finally turned himself in 21 years ago at the FBI’s Lower Manhattan office.