Mob’s Reach Is on View in Florida Murder Trial

The New York Times reports:

With a mix of swagger and candor, the witness airily acknowledged committing a fistful of felonies years ago as a member of New York’s Gambino crime family.

“When I was in that life, I was in it thoroughly,” the burly 57-year-old mob enforcer told jurors last week in Broward County Circuit Court. “I was no good. I was a killer. I was a drug dealer. I was a hijacker. I beat people half to death. I did a lot of bad things — very bad things.”

Identified in court by the alias Nick DiMaggio, the witness was in fact Peter (Bud) Zuccaro, a seven-time convict from the Howard Beach section of Queens, who under a deal with prosecutors has turned against former Gambino associates in several trials. He testified against one of two defendants accused of orchestrating the murder here in 2001 of a sandwich-shop mogul and casino owner, Konstantinos (Gus) Boulis, a business associate of Jack Abramoff, the disgraced former Washington lobbyist.

The trial of Anthony (Big Tony) Moscatiello and Anthony (Little Tony) Ferrari, who prosecutors say arranged Mr. Boulis’s killing to end a dispute over his gambling interests, vividly illustrates the close connections between mob operatives and their endeavors in Florida, New York and elsewhere. Florida has had a heavy mob presence since the days when Al Capone bought a mansion on Palm Island in Miami in 1928.

Rife with details of internecine mob warfare, the trial has also included references to Mr. Abramoff, whose botched $147 million deal to buy Mr. Boulis’s SunCruz Casinos led in part to his incarceration in 2006. Mr. Abramoff, who was convicted of defrauding lenders in the deal but was not thought by prosecutors to have had a hand in the Boulis murder, is expected to testify soon from his lawyer’s office in Washington.

An article well worth your time.