It has taken them over 30 years, but
the FBI have finally charged members of the New York mafia with the 1978
Lufthansa heist at JFK - made famous by the movie Goodfellas.
Five
high-ranking members of the Bonanno organized crime family were
arrested and charged in pre-dawn raids on Thursday morning in connection
with the $6 million robbery that is still one of the largest cash
thefts in American history.
The
arrests took place across New York and included Thomas 'Tommy D'
DiDiore, who is believed to be the highest ranking member of the Bonanno
family outside of prison and Vincent Asaro, 78, who is alleged to be a
captain, or capo in the ranks of the crime family.
+13
Arrest 35-years later: Vincent Vinny Asaro
(2-R), a captain in the Bonanno crime family, is escorted by FBI agents
out of a federal building in New York, on Thursday 23 January 2014 -
Asaro is suspected of being involved in the infamous Lufthansa heist of
1978
+13
Busted: Vincent Asaro, an alleged captain in the
Bonanno crime family, is led from Federal Plaza as he is charged in
connection with the 1978 Lufthansa heist at JFK International Airport
+13
+13
Boss: Thomas (Tommy D) DiFiore , reportedly
connected to the Bonanno crime family, is escorted by FBI agents out of a
federal building in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday after being charged
in connection with the Lufthansa heist of 1978
+13
+13
Pinched: Two of five men arrested by the FBI
this morning in connection with the infamous Lufthansa heist of 1978
leaves the court in Brooklyn
+13
Bowed head: This morning 78-year-old Vincent
Asaro, 55-year-old Jerome Asaro, 70-year-old Thomas Tommy D DiFiore,
52-year-old John Bazoo Ragano and Jack Bonventre were arraigned in
Brooklyn for the 1978 Lufthansa heist
+13
Tough guy: A man connected to the Bonanno crime
family is escorted by FBI agents today in Brooklyn. Court papers
unsealed in New York charge that the men were members of the Bonanno
crime family
This is the first time any accused member of the mafia has ever faced charges in connection with the crime.
The
arrests of the five men follows a discovery by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation of human remains at a New York property tied to James
'Jimmy the Gent' Burke last summer.
Burke,
the suspected mastermind of the heist, died in prison in 1996 while
serving time for the murder of a drug dealer. Actor Robert De Niro
played a character based on Burke in the film.
Vincent
Asaro, identified as one of the leaders of the Bonanno gang, was
charged with the theft of $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewelry
from the Lufthansa Terminal at Kennedy on December 11, 1978.
At
the time, it was the biggest cash heist ever in the United States. The
stolen $5 million would be worth $17.9 million in 2013 dollars,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The
crime stumped investigators for years, but a break in the case came
last summer during a search that turned up human remains buried at the
former home of Burke.
The
indictment charges Asaro with the murder of Paul Katz in 1969, as well
as robbery, conspiracy and other charges tied to the 1978 heist.
The
Asaros, both alleged captains in the Bonanno organized crime family,
also were charged together in a 1984 robbery of $1.25 million worth of
gold salts from a Federal Express employee.
Information on their attorneys was not immediately available.
Burke owned Robert's Lounge, the
saloon that a fellow Lucchese associate, the late Henry Hill - played by
Ray Liotta in Goodfellas - described as Burke's private cemetery.
'Jimmy buried over a dozen bodies ... under the bocce courts,' Hill wrote in his book, 'A Goodfella's Guide to New York.'
Law
enforcement have said that the arrested are Bonanno crime family
members Vincent Asaro, 78; Jerome Asaro, 55; Thomas 'Tommy D' DiFiore,
70; John 'Bazoo' Ragano, 52; and Jack Bonventre, whose age isn't known.
Two of the suspects live in Queens, two in Long Island and one in upstate New York.
+13
+13
Life and film: James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke is
led handcuffed from a law enforcenemt vehicle in this April 1979 file
photo - and (right) as portrayed by Robert De Niro in the 1990 film
Goodfellas
The exact
connection between the search of Burke's home in Queens and the
Lufthansa heist has not been made clear by the FBI as of Thursday.
Before
today the only person ever convicted in connection with the robbery was
airport insider, Louis Werner - who tipped off the men who stole the
money.
The theft occurred
in the middle of the night on December 11, 1978 and netted the robbers
more than $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels.
At
the time, it was the largest heist ever in America and led to a huge,
decades-long search for the perpetrators that until now has been
fruitless.
Six masked gunman took 64 minutes to steal the packets of cash, toss them into a van and escape.
The
FBI has always agreed with the plot of the movie Goodfellas about all
loose connections to the robbery being killed off by paranoid mob
bosses.
+13
Anger: The character of Jimmy Conway - played by
Robert De Niro - becomes angry in the aftermath of the Lufthansa
robbery and begins to kill those associated with the heist
+13
Iconic: The 1990 Martin Scorsese movie
Goodfellas is considered by some to be one of the best movies about
organized crime in modern American history
Federal agents believe
that Asaro was the key mafia overseer for JFK and as such would have
been informed of Burke's plan to rob the currency shipment from West
Germany.
The indictment
charges Asaro with the murder of Paul Katz in 1969, as well as robbery,
conspiracy and other charges tied to the 1978 heist.
ABC News reported Katz was killed, and his remains buried, because Burke believed he was working with law enforcement.
Burke
was a specialist in hijacking and was arrrested in 1982 for a parole
violation and was sentenced to 12 years in prison for match fixing
involving the Boston College basketball team.
During
his prison term, Burke was indicted for the murder of a known drug
dealer whose body was found tied up hanging in a freezer truck in
Brooklyn.
He was sentenced
to 20 years to life for second-degree murder and died behind bars in
1996, at age 64, almost two decades after the airport robbery.
The cash has never been recovered from the robbery.
dailymail.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment