The Pizza Connection Trial (in full, ''United States v. Badalamenti et al.'') was a criminal trial against the
Sicilian and
American mafia
"Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of ...
s that took place before the
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
, U.S. The trial centered on a number of independently owned
pizza parlor fronts used to distribute drugs, which had imported US$1.65 billion of heroin from Southwest Asia to the United States between 1975 and 1984.
[Gaetano Badalamenti, 80; Led Pizza Connection Ring](_blank)
The New York Times (Obituary), May 3, 2004 The trial lasted from September 30, 1985, to March 2, 1987, ending with 18 convictions, with sentences handed down on June 22, 1987.
[ Lasting about 17 months, it was the longest trial in the judicial history of the United States.]
Background
The trial centered on a Mafia-run enterprise that involved processing heroin in Sicily, morphine purchased from Turkey and Southwest Asia, and cocaine from South America, for final distribution of the drugs in the United States through independently owned pizza parlor fronts as the money was laundered through several banks and brokerages in the United States and overseas.[ The enterprise was estimated to have imported US$1.65 billion of heroin to the United States, namely the ]Northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
and the Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. ...
, between 1975 and 1984.[
For about a year, the prosecution, consisting of Richard A. Martin, ]Louis J. Freeh
Louis Joseph Freeh (born January 6, 1950) is an American attorney and former judge who served as the fifth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from September 1993 to June 2001.
Graduated from Rutgers University and New York Univers ...
, Robert Stewart, Robert B. Bucknam and Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy III (born 1959) is an American columnist for ''National Review''. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. A Republican, he led the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheikh Omar ...
, gathered hundreds of witnesses, wiretap
Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...
s, and thousands of documents, which cost several million dollars to complete.[ Arrests of conspirators were coordinated in the United States, Italy, Switzerland and Spain on April 8, 1984, following the capture of ]Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti (; 14 September 1923 – 29 April 2004) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ''Don Tano'' Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s. In 1 ...
and his son Vito Badalamenti together with Pietro Alfano in Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...
, Spain;[ on November 15, they were extradited to the United States. Badalamenti was formerly on the Sicilian Mafia Commission.][Dickie, ''Cosa Nostra'', p. 337-38] A day later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
arrested nearly 30 people in New York City, seizing weapons and drugs.
One of these witnesses was Sicilian Mafia pentito
''Pentito'' (; lit. "repentant"; plural: ''pentiti'') is used colloquially to designate collaborators of justice in Italian criminal procedure terminology who were formerly part of criminal organizations and decided to collaborate with a public ...
Tommaso Buscetta
Tommaso Buscetta (; 13 July 1928 – 2 April 2000) was an Italian mobster and a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He became one of the first of its members to turn informant and explain the inner workings of the organization.
Buscetta participated i ...
, who had already revealed information to Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone
Giovanni Falcone (; 18 May 1939 – 23 May 1992) was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian ...
to prepare for the Maxi Trial
The Maxi Trial ( it, Maxiprocesso) was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo, Sicily. The trial lasted from 10 February 1986 (the first day of the Corte d'Assise) to 30 January 1992 (the final day of the Suprem ...
, was extradited in December 1984 to the United States where he received a new identity from the government, American citizenship and placement in the Witness Protection Program
Witness protection is security provided to a threatened person providing testimonial evidence to the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during, and after a trial, usually by police. While a witness may only require p ...
in exchange for new revelations against the American Mafia in the Pizza Connection Trial.
Another witness was Sicilian Mafia pentito Salvatore Contorno
Salvatore Contorno (; born 28 May 1946), called Totuccio, is a former member of the Sicilian Mafia who turned into a state witness ('' pentito'') against Cosa Nostra in October 1984, following the example of Tommaso Buscetta. He gave detailed acc ...
, who followed the example of Buscetta, and began collaborating in October 1984, and also testified at the Maxi Trial.[Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', p. 147][Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 130-32][Dickie, ''Cosa Nostra'', p. 290]
Former undercover
To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an ind ...
FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone, who infiltrated the Bonanno crime family
The Bonanno crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the " Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as th ...
between 1976 and 1981 using the alias "Donnie Brasco", also testified at the trial.
Trial
Defendants
Out of those arrested, 22 Sicilian-born defendants stood in the trial that began on September 30, 1985:[
*]Gaetano Badalamenti
Gaetano Badalamenti (; 14 September 1923 – 29 April 2004) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. ''Don Tano'' Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s. In 1 ...
*Salvatore Catalano
*Joseph Lamberti
*Salvatore Mazzurco
*Salvatore Lamberti
*Giovanni Ligammari
*Baldassare Amato
Baldassare Amato (born 15 December 1951) is a Sicilian gangster and a member of the Bonanno Mafia family in New York City. He was a cousin of Bonanno crime family capo Cesare Bonventre. At age 18, he emigrated from Castellammare del Golfo, Ital ...
*Vincenzo Randazzo
*Pietro Alfano
*Emmanuele Palazzolo
*Samuel Evola
* Vito Badalamenti
*Giuseppe Trupiano
*Giuseppe Vitale
*Lorenzo DeVardo
*Giovanni Cangialosi
*Salvatore Salamone
*Salvatore Greco
*Frank Castronovo
*Gaetano Mazzara
*Francesco Polizzi
*Filippo Casamento
Developments
Buscetta provided no direct connection between the defendants and drugs. Contorno testified that defendant Frank Castronovo, cousin of Carlo Castronovo in Sicily, used pizza parlors as fronts in the United States.[ Contorno also testified that he had a meeting in 1980 in ]Bagheria
Bagheria (; scn, Baarìa ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo in Sicily, Italy, located approximately 10km to the east of the city centre.
Etymology
According to some sources, the name ''Bagheria'' (by way of old Sicil ...
about heroin and had seen Castronovo there with three other defendants—Salvatore Catalano, Gaetano Mazzara, and Salvatore Greco.[ Pistone testified that he was told that a Bonanno faction headed by ]Dominick Napolitano
Dominick Napolitano (June 16, 1930 – August 17, 1981), also known as Sonny Black, was an American Mafia caporegime in the Bonanno crime family. He is known for unwittingly allowing FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone to become an associate in hi ...
had formed an alliance with a Sicilian faction, which involved Salvatore Catalano.[
]
Verdicts
Over the course of the trial, Gaetano Mazzara was murdered and Pietro Alfano was seriously wounded,[ and on March2, 1987, two of the 22 men pleaded guilty to lesser currency violations,][ while 18 of the remaining 19 defendants were convicted of running an international drug ring.][ Vito Badalamenti was the only defendant acquitted.][Acquitted in 'Pizza Connection' Trial, Man Remains in Prison](_blank)
, The New York Times, July 28, 1988 Sentences were handed down by judge Pierre Leval on June22, 1987. Five of the defendants were sentenced to 45 years in prison, while the 13 other defendants faced maximum sentences of between 15 and 40 years in prison for their convictions on charges of participating in the drug conspiracy.[ Gaetano Badalamenti was sentenced to 45years in prison and fined $125,000, and since he was extradited from Spain with the provision that he serve no more than 30years, he was ordered to be released after 30years should he live that long.][ Salvatore Catalano was also was sentenced to 45years in prison but fined $1.15million (equivalent to $million in ) and ordered to pay $1million (equivalent to $million in ) in restitution; Salvatore Mazzurco was sentenced to 35years in prison, fined $50,000 (), and ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution (); Salvatore Lamberti was sentenced to 20years in prison, fined $50,000 (), and ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution (); and Giuseppe Lamberti was sentenced to 35years in prison, fined $150,000 (), and ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution ().][
]
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
Decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, ''U.S. v. Casamento'', 887 F. 2d 1141 (2d Cir. 1989)
{{Mafia
20th-century American trials
1987 in New York City
American Mafia events
Bonanno crime family
Drug rings
History of the Sicilian Mafia
Mafia trials
Organized crime in New York City
Pizza in New York City