PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Anthony L. DiNunzio has been the acting boss of the New England mob since 2009 and once bragged that he would enforce discipline on the gangsters under his rule by burying them alive if they refused to follow his orders, according to a federal indictment.
DiNunzio, who was arrested in Boston’s North End this morning and appeared in court here a few hours later, allegedly took over as leader of the Patriarca crime family in late 2009 or early 2010, shortly after the Rhode Island-based gangster, Luigi “Louie†Manocchio gave up the job. Manocchio, who is in his mid-80s, has pleaded guilty to federal charges.According to the indictment, DiNunzio accepted both the title of boss of the New England mob and the thousands of dollars in extortion payments that Manocchio had collected for decades from strip clubs in Rhode Island. Authorities allege that the mob collected $2 million from the clubs since about 1993.
DiNunzio also allegedly bragged that if he was ever arrested, it would not change the way he, or the New England mob, operates.
“If I go to the can, I’m still the boss,’’ DiNunzio is quoted as saying during a Dec. 7, 2011, meeting with a member of the New York-based Gambino crime family.
DiNunzio was arrested at the Gemini Social Club on Endicott Street in the North End without incident and made his initial court appearance accompanied by his Boston attorney, Robert Sheketoff. (Earlier today, officials had incorrectly reported that DiNunzio was arrested in East Boston Tuesday night.)
Wearing glasses and a windbreaker, the burly East Boston resident calmly answered routine questions posed to him by court officials during the brief hearing.
Sheketoff did not challenge a request by federal prosecutors that DiNunzio be held in custody until a formal detention hearing, which is set for May 3.
According to Assistant US Attorney William Ferland and court records, Anthony DiNunzio is facing one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of extortion conspiracy, and five counts of traveling in aid of racketeering.
Anthony DiNunzio is the brother of Carmen “The Cheese Man†DiNunzio, who was the acting boss of the New England mob until his imprisonment in 2009 on federal charges related to the Big Dig.
In the indictment, Anthony DiNunzio described his management style.
“As soon as I took over, I changed everything,’’ he is quoted as saying.
He described what he would do to anyone who balks at his orders. “I get to watch you die in the ground. ... I’ll bury you right in the [expletive] ground. ... You’re alive. They stay there. I stay there 10 [expletive] hours until your [sic] dead. And I’ll dig you back up and make sure you are dead,’’ he is quoted as saying during a June 22, 2011, meeting at My Cousin Vinny’s restaurant in Malden.
In June 2010, DiNunzio met with Manocchio and other mob members at Billy Tse’s Chinese restaurant in Boston to discuss business, according to the indictment. One year later, he told a senior member of the Gambino crime family that he had discovered that federal law enforcement had the restaurant wired with surveillance equipment.
“We met, me and two other guys,’’ he is quoted as saying. “They had us on tape. I just found out yesterday … the whole place was wired no matter what table we sat at.â€
Rhode Island US Attorney Peter F. Neronha; James M. Trusty, chief of the organized crime section in the US Justice Department; and Richard Deslauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, told reporters today that authorities are steadily dismantling the mob.
Neronha said DiNunzio is the ninth member, or associate, of the New England mob to face charges in Rhode Island and that six of them have pleaded guilty.
“Organized crime likes to believe their reach is long. Our reach is longer,’’ Neronha said. “The prosecutors and the investigators in the case have really dealt a severe blow to organized crime. These are not light punches, these are heavy blows, and we hope they will have an effect, and continue to have an effect.’’
Rhode Island State Police Colonel Steven O’Donnell said DiNunzio was “just another boss that got arrested. ... Over the decades, the law enforcement network out there has basically dismantled the New England Cosa Nostra as we know it.’’
Neronha’s office and the FBI have been investigating New England’s mobsters for the past several years with a focus on the alleged shakedown of Rhode Island strip club operators.
Last September, federal prosecutors charged six people with participating in the extortion scheme focused on Rhode Island’s adult entertainment industry since the 1980s.
In a seven-count indictment unsealed in Providence last year, federal authorities said leadership of the Mafia in New England had shifted back to Boston. Those court documents did not identify Anthony DiNunzio by name but did describe a meeting in the North End where the crime boss collected $5,000 in cash.
In the indictment unsealed today, authorities said FBI agents searched DiNunzio after the meeting and took the cash from him but did not arrest him.
DiNunzio later told an associate “it was marked money.†He later told a different associate, “Come on, let’s go have a steak for lunch because we are probably going to get pinched tomorrow.â€
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