Shark weak! Mafia loan dopes busted
Brooklyn federal prosecutors cracked down on Mafia loansharks Wednesday — including one reputed gangster who turned on his own partner in the illegal loan business.
Authorities unsealed a 32count indictment against five alleged Colombo and Gambino members and associates, accusing them of carrying out roughly eight years of loansharking and illegal gambling.
The roster of colorfully named wiseguys include Vito (The Mask) DiFalco, 63, Salvatore (Sal Heaven) DiSano, 48, Anthony (Anthony Suits) Licata, 49, and 42-year-old Joseph Maratea.
Jerry (Fat Jerry) Ciauri, a reputed Colombo soldier, was another Brooklyn man arrested in the takedown — and he also got hit with an extra stalking charge for targeting his onetime partner.
The unidentified Staten Island stalking victim was in the loan-making business with Ciauri, but he was falling behind on collecting interest payments and passing them to Ciauri.
“You can run upstate all you want, I’ll go up there and shoot you and your wife in the head,” Ciauri said during a summer 2017 phone call, according to court papers.
The onetime partner went to the feds and started wearing a wire.
“Please don’t jerk me around today im asking nice,” Ciauri, 59, wrote in one October 2017 text to the snitch, who’s pleaded guilty to racketeering.
Ciauri, 59, enlisted a man named Joseph (Mumbles) Rizzo to track the man who lived nearby. Rizzo, who was also charged in the case, would update Ciauri if the man’s car was parked at his place, court papers said.
In December 2017, Ciauri and a relative slashed tires on a car they thought belonged to the onetime partner. It was the wrong car, prosecutors said.
All five men were remanded after pleading not guilty to the indictment’s charges like racketeering, money laundering and illegal gambling. Rizzo made bail in the stalking case.