File Photo
Frank Salerno
By Forum Staff
Reputed Bonanno organized crime family soldier Frank Salerno has been sentenced to five years in prison for racketeering conspiracy, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.
Officials noted that earlier this month, John Ambrosio, 74, an acting captain in the Gambino organized crime family, and Anthony Saladino, 67, a Gambino associate, were sentenced to 51 and 63 months’ imprisonment, respectively, for racketeering conspiracy. Ambrosio, Saladino, and Salerno were the last of seven defendants to be sentenced on a superseding indictment charging Gambino and Bonanno members and associates with racketeering conspiracy, including predicate acts of drug trafficking, loan sharking, gambling and obstruction of justice, prosecutors added.
According to the indictment, between January 2014 and December 2017, Ambrosio and his co-conspirators engaged in a racketeering conspiracy, which included loansharking, operating illegal gambling businesses, narcotics distribution conspiracy, and obstruction of justice conspiracy.
Whitestone resident Salerno, 43, routinely collected payments from extortionate loans and gambling-related debts, often at the direction of Ambrosio. In one intercepted conversation, Saladino and Thomas Anzalone, 44, of Ozone Park, discussed unpaid gambling debts, during which Saladino said he would give the debtor “something to be scared about.” On another occasion, Saladino admitted to an undercover agent that he and Salerno were involved in organized crime, stating that Salerno “has got that thing (pointing to his shirt button),” indicating membership in organized crime. In another intercepted call, Saladino recounted for Ambrosio a collection effort in which he threatened an individual, saying “when I get my hands around your f—–g neck, everything is going to pop out of your ears.”
Ambrosio also was involved with a variety of gambling operations, including illegal poker games, electronic gaming machines and internet sports betting, with Salerno, Saladino, Whitestone resident Alessandro Damelio, 49, and Joseph Durso, 26, being responsible for many of the day-to-day operations. Anzalone, Damelio, Durso, Saladino and Salerno distributed a variety of narcotics, including cocaine, marijuana and Xanax. When Ambrosio and his co-conspirators were arrested on Dec. 12, 2017, law enforcement agents executed search warrants at various locations, including a storage facility in Nassau County, and recovered gambling and loan sharking records, electronic gaming machines, narcotics and drug paraphernalia and numerous firearms, including two AR-15 rifles, a .38-caliber revolver and a sawed-off shotgun.
As part of his sentence, Ambrosio will forfeit $100,000, including $66,116 in cash that was seized from his Long Island residence, prosecutors said.
“Organized crime continues to plague our communities with violence, coercion, and intimidation,” said FBI New York Assistant Director-in-Charge Bill Sweeney. “The mobsters grow richer while their victims live in fear as they struggle to make payments while dealing with daily threats. Today’s sentences demonstrate that the shirt button of a ‘made man’ is no match for a badge – the FBI/NYPD Joint Organized Crime Task Force is committed to investigating and rooting out organized crime wherever it occurs, and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.”
Anzalone was sentenced on July 24 to two years and 10 months in federal prison; and Damelio and Durso were sentenced on July 11, and Nov. 5, respectively, to two months’ imprisonment.
