Judge springs mob killer who caught COVID

Dirty Danny is out of the can. Daniel “Dirty Danny” Mongelli, a former acting captain in the Bonanno crime family, was sprung from a federal prison Wednesday because he has coronavirus.

Mongelli was serving more than 20 years for his role in a gangland rubout.

Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis previously denied Mongelli’s application for compassionate release during the pandemic.

Garaufis said he changed his mind “in light of Mr. Mongelli’s serious underlying health condition, his recent COVID-19 infection, and the failure of the Bureau of Prisons to prevent and control a COVID-19 outbreak at FCI Fort Dix.”

Mongelli’s family said he had a severe fever, though the feds say he had mild symptoms and no fever.

The gangster was part of the conspiracy to murder Bonanno family associate Louis Tuzzio, 25, in Brooklyn in 1990. He lured Tuzzio to his death with the promise of making him a made man, the feds said.

“I was there when Louis Tuzzio was murdered and I knew he was going to be murdered,” Mongelli said when he pleaded guilty in 2004. He acted as the lookout during the crime.

Tuzzio was discovered dead, his head riddled with bullets and slumped over the steering wheel of a stolen Chevy at Avenue L and E. Fourth St. on Jan. 3, 1990.

Mongelli

(inset) and his Bonanno cohort killed Tuzzio to appease Gambino crime family boss John

“Teflon Don” Gotti.

Gotti was upset after Tuzzio carried out a 1989 hit on Costabile “Gus” Farace — who murdered a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent named Everett Hatcher on Staten Island. Gambino associate Joseph Scalfani, who was in the car with w Farace, was also slain — upsetting Gotti.

Mongelli, 54, was treated for prostate cancer last year.

His lawyers told the judge of a rapid spike in COVID-19 cases at his prison, FCI Fort Dix, in late October. Eight days later, Mongelli caught the virus.

FCI Fort Dix currently has the most coronavirus cases of any federal prison in the country, according to Bureau of Prisons statistics.

There are 214 inmates with illness at the prison, up from 59 cases one week ago. That’s just under 10% of the prison’s population.

Mongelli has served 18 years in prison and was set to be released in 2023.