Deposited in jail
$5M bank-vault-cracking gang busted: DA
THREE MEN, including the son of a slain Gambino foot soldier, were arrested Tuesday morning for brazenly raiding $5 million in cash and valuables from several New York City bank vaults, officials said.
The crew — made up of Michael Mazzara, 44, Charles Kerrigan, 40, and Anthony Mascuzzio, 36 — allegedly used a gas welding torch to cut through the banks’ roofs and vaults.
The burglars pocketed money and items such as jewelry and baseball cards, many of which were heirlooms, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office said in a criminal complaint.
An HSBC Bank branch in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and the Maspeth Federal Savings Bank branch in Maspeth, Queens, were hit the weekends of April 8 and May 20, respectively.
“The thieves stole not just people’s money, but their memories, too,” said Bharara. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton compared the heists with the Al Pacino-Robert De Niro movie “Heat” — “the work of a crew that was well-organized, meticulous and elusive to law enforcement.”
The three face charges of conspiracy and bank burglary.
Mazarra’s lawyer, Sanford Talkin, told the Daily News that his client “maintains his innocence,” and Kerrigan lawyer James Froccaro said his client is “not guilty.”
Mascuzzio’s lawyer declined comment. Mascuzzio’s father, John Gotti associate Anthony (Shorty) Mascuzzio, was killed in 1988 during a scuffle at a West Side Manhattan nightclub.
The younger Mascuzzio was released from a federal lockup in March 2015 after doing time for selling pot.