'Gambino' mob head pleads guilty to racketeering
The reputed head of the Gambino crime family pleaded guilty to racketeering charges after he got an assurance from a New York judge that he was not admitting he was a Gambino gangster.
Arnold Squitieri, 70, entered the plea in US District Court in Manhattan in a deal that calls for a sentence ranging from seven years, three months to nine years. Sentencing was set for July 28.
Squitieri told Judge Michael Dolinger he was ready to plead guilty to four counts in an indictment
that resulted in dozens of arrests, but only if he was assured it was “with the Gambino name out of it”.
Dolinger told him he was admitting a role in an “enterprise” that engaged in racketeering.
With that, Squitieri said he was guilty.
Later, he admitted “engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity” between 1999 and 2005 that included extortions of a Mineola, New York, construction company, a New Jersey trucking company and a Westchester County construction company.
He said he knew that the companies were paying money to the enterprise because there were “implied threats of violence”.
“I knew it was wrong,” he told Dolinger.
When he was asked to say how many years he had engaged in the racketeering crimes, he paused and apologised for the delay.
“I can’t remember, your honour. I’m getting up in age,” he said.
As he described the crimes, his wife Maria and one of his daughters shook their heads.
As he left court, he turned toward his wife and said: “I did it for you. I did it for you. I pleaded guilty because of you.”
Outside court, his lawyer, Gerald Shargel, declined to comment on the exchange.
The indictment was brought last year when prosecutors announced they had built a case with the help of an undercover FBI agent who infiltrated the Gambino organisation and became so well trusted that he was offered membership.
