Reputed NYC mob boss pleads guilty in Queens union shakedown
An ailing crime family capo pleaded guilty on Friday to charges related to a union shakedown in Queens and threats on a labor leader’s life.
So entrenched was Vincent Ricciardo in the labor rackets that he earned the nickname “Vinny Unions” among his mob friends, according to federal prosecutors.
Ricciardo, 77, a reputed captain in the Colombo crime family, also pleaded guilty to loansharking and money laundering charges, and was the last member of the mafia family indicted in 2021 and 2022 in connection with various offenses involving extortion, drug-trafficking and fraud.
Underboss Benjamin Castellazzo previously pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy, and consigliere Ralph DiMatteo pleaded guilty to racketeering involving extortion and money laundering conspiracy.
“Today, there can be no doubt that the Colombo crime family has been decapitated as a result of the guilty pleas by its leadership and other facilitators of lucrative schemes,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace.
Ricciardo was arrested in North Carolina in 2021 and denied bail after a wiretap of him revealed he threatened to whack a union boss, according to prosecutors.
“We will send people he don’t know right to his f---ing house,” Ricciardo said in one conversation recounted by prosecutors. In another, Ricciardo appeared to reference his failing health in the midst of a threat to kill a union boss.
“Let me tell you something,” he declared. “To prove a point? I would f---ing shoot him right in front of his wife and kids. Call the police ... How long you think I’m gonna last anyway?”
Ricciardo was caught on another recorded call discussing a suspected informant inside the family.
“Oh no, he’s dead now, he’s finished,” he said. “He signed his own death certificate.”
Prosecutors said Ricciardo’s poor health did nothing to slow his role in the criminal conspiracy.
Lawyers for Ricciardo have said he has heart problems, kidney disease and severe breathing issues.
Ricciardo and other associates tried to take control of a Queens-based union and its health care benefits program, according to the prosecutors.
Colombo captains Theodore Persico, Jr., who was slated to become the family’s next boss, and Richard Ferrara also pleaded guilty to racketeering, the feds said.
Mob leaders made threats against a senior union official, and conspired to launder $10,000 a month from the benefits program.
In a separate Mafia scheme, John Ragano — a Bonanno crime family soldier who goes by the nicknames “Bazoo” and the “Maniac,” — issued bogus workplace safety training certifications from two occupational safety schools in Long Island, the feds said.
The schools were really used to hold gangster gatherings and to store illegal drugs and fireworks, according to a federal indictment.
Ragano pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with a means of identification in November and in April was sentenced to nearly five years in prison.
