Jailed mob geezer: ‘Whack prosecutor’
The aging Bonanno capo who was acquitted on charges he masterminded the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist threatened to whack the federal prosecutor handling his most recent case, court papers say.
Vincent Asaro, 82, told a fellow inmate he had to take care of Assistant US Attorney Nicole Argentieri, according to newly filed documents in Brooklyn federal court.
“We need to do something about this bitch,” Asaro said recently as he languished in jail awaiting trial on road-rage-related arson charges and other raps.
Argentieri is one of three federal prosecutors working that case.
The mobster beat a federal rap 18 months ago for the JFK Airport robbery depicted in “Goodfellas,” but he’s now accused of ordering henchmen — including a namesake grandson of John Gotti — to torch the car of a driver who unwittingly had cut him off.
“We need to handle this,” the elderly mafioso purportedly snarled while holed up in the Manhattan Detention Complex on his new case. “And not f--k up, like Vinny.”
Prosecutors claim Asaro was referring to Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, the former acting boss of the Bonanno crime family.
Basciano is currently serving a life sentence for murder after a failed attempt to rub out his own prosecutor.
The motion detailing the threats follows an attempt by defense attorney Elizabeth Macedonio to spring her client on bond in his 2012 arson case.
Asaro also was allegedly overheard saying he would snuff out his “rat cousin” Gaspare Valenti if he ever saw him again. Valenti, who is now in the federal witness-protection program, was a key witness in the unsuccessful Lufthansa prosecution.
Macedonio did not return messages.