ACTING UNDERBOSS OF GAMBINO CRIME FAMILY SENTENCED TO
OVER 11 YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR RACKETEERING
AND EXTORTION OF THREE AREA BUSINESSES

MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that ANTHONY MEGALE, a/k/a “Mac,” a/k/a “Machiavelli,” was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 135 months’ imprisonment, following his conviction on racketeering and extortion charges. United States District Judge ALVIN K. HELLERSTEIN also imposed a term of three years’ supervised release, a fine of $30,000, and ordered MEGALE to forfeit $100,000, representing the proceeds of his criminal activity.

MEGALE’s sentencing today followed his guilty plea on March 30, 2006, to four counts of an Indictment unsealed last year. It charged 32 defendants, most of whom are members or associates of the Gambino Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, with wide-ranging racketeering crimes and other offenses spanning more than a decade, including violent assault, extortion of various individuals and businesses, loansharking, union embezzlement, illegal gambling, trafficking in stolen property and counterfeit goods, and mail fraud. As part of his guilty plea, MEGALE admitted participating in a racketeering enterprise and extorting the owners of a restaurant in Greenwich, Connecticut, a New Jersey trucking company, and a construction
company in Westchester County.

As set forth in the Indictment, from approximately 2002 until the time of his arrest in late 2004, MEGALE was the Acting Underboss of the Gambino Organized Crime Family. MEGALE assumed this position when official Underboss ARNOLD SQUITIERI, a codefendant, was elevated from Underboss to Acting Boss.

The charges leading to MEGALE’s conviction were the result of an almost three-year long investigation that included obtaining court authorization to intercept conversations among high-ranking members of the Gambino Crime Family at several locations in the Bronx and Westchester County, including at the United Hebrew Geriatrics Home, located in New Rochelle, New York. An undercover FBI agent also infiltrated the Gambino Family in the course of the investigation.

All but one of the defendants charged in this case have pleaded guilty or, in the case of Gambino Family Capo GREGORY DePALMA, been convicted at trial. In the past two weeks, Gambino Family Capo THOMAS CACCIOPOLI, a/k/a “Tommy Sneakers,” Luchese Organized Crime Family Captain JOHN CAPRA, a/k/a “Johnny Hooks,” and Genovese Organized Crime Family Soldier PASQUALE DELUCA, a/k/a “Scop,” have all pleaded guilty in this case. The sole remaining defendant, Gambino Family associate LOUIS NATRELLA, is scheduled to go to trial on September 11, 2006.

Mr. GARCIA praised the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and expressed appreciation to the Department of Labor.

Assistant United States Attorneys CHRISTOPHER P. CONNIFF, EDWARD O’CALLAGHAN and SCOTT L. MARRAH are in charge of the prosecutions.