Sep 9, 2008 6:56 pm US/Central
Reputed Mobster Gets 3 Yrs For Gambling, Extortion
CHICAGO (AP) ―
Reputed mobster Nicholas Ferriola was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for his role in what prosecutors described as a ruthless mob conspiracy that raked in huge gambling profits, squeezed businesses for "street tax" and gunned down anyone who got in the way.
Ferriola, 33, who pled guilty to racketeering, gambling and extortion charges in the federal government's landmark Operation Family Secrets mob investigation, was also ordered to forfeit $9,082,509 and fined $6,000.
"He played a significant role in a long-running criminal enterprise," U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel said in imposing sentence.
Zagel brushed aside defense claims that Ferriola was a small fry and not in the same category with big-name mob bosses indicted in the case.
Operation Family Secrets was a major effort by the FBI and federal prosecutors to decapitate the city's organized crime family -- the so-called Chicago Outfit -- and close the books on 18 long unsolved mob hits.
Ferriola was not accused of killing anyone. But on the eve of trial he admitted running a gambling operation that took in up to $160,000 a month in profits and collecting thousands of dollars in extortion payments -- or "street tax" -- for mobster Frank Calabrese Sr.
He pled guilty to racketeering, extortion and gambling offenses.
Calabrese, 70, allegedly a key figure in the mob's ruthless Chinatown Crew, was one of three defendants held responsible by a federal jury in September 2007 for a series of mob murders that went unsolved for years.
Witnesses, including Calabrese's own brother, testified that he was both a loan shark and a hit man who strangled victims with ropes and then slashed their throats to make sure they were dead.
Prosecutors described Calabrese, who is awaiting sentence and faces a possible life term, as Ferriola's underworld mentor.
Ferriola admitted after Calabrese went to prison in another case that he regularly visited a pizza restaurant to collect thousands of dollars in street tax that Calabrese had squeezed out of the owner for years.
Zagel said he doubted Ferriola would have enough money to pay the $6,000 fine. But prosecutors indicated that if he comes up with assets the government will quickly confiscate them to pay off the big forfeiture.
Zagel recommended the Bureau of Prisons send Ferriola to an institution that has an alcohol treatment program. He set a surrender date of Nov. 15.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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