Surviving the Mob - Dennis Griffin [73]
The indictment by a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale asserted that Corozzo had ordered the abduction and murder of an associate in the family, Louis Maione, suspected of stealing $20,000 from the loansharking operation. Investigators said the FBI had been investigating the Florida crew for two years and that its loansharking activities were conducted through a front, the E-Z Check Cashing Company in Deerfield Beach, a town near Fort Lauderdale.
From wiretaps, the FBI learned about the alleged conspiracy to murder Maione, who cooperated with the inquiry after agents warned him that his life was in danger.
Although Nicky had predicted his arrest days earlier, it still sent shockwaves through the crew.
“We couldn’t believe it happened so quick,” Andrew recalls. “I started to wonder that if they were that close to Nicky, were there agents in the diner when we had our meeting? Did they know about me? How safe was my safe house? I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t want to give up my apartment and go back to living like a gypsy.
“A few days later, I got a call from Lenny. He’d been pinched with Nicky, but had been able to arrange bail. Nicky hadn’t. Lenny wanted to know how long before I was going to get Wild Bill his seven thousand. I had the money, but I asked him to give me a few days. Then he told me that Nicky expected me to help him with his lawyer fees. I told him I’d help him if he needed it. But Nicky had millions. Why in the fuck should I help him?
“Lenny said that with all the law-enforcement pressure, nobody could earn like before. Everybody had to tighten their belt. He even told me I had the green light to bring my associates in the drug business forward and put them on record [introduce them to the crew boss].
“Selling drugs was supposedly taboo in organized crime. All the families made money from drugs, but they claimed they earned from shaking down the dealers, not from dealing themselves. I’d been around the Gambino family all my adult life and I’d never been given a green light to bring drug dealers forward. Something wasn’t right. If they wanted to know who my dealers were, it was because they were going to pass them on to somebody else. Which meant I probably wasn’t going to be around.
“Nicky wanted me to set up a hit on Junior Gotti, bring my drug connections forward, and pay his legal fees. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out they were measuring me up for a casket myself. All the signs were there. The dry run at Mike Yannotti’s house. Lenny’s warning about being careful in my backyard. The notice that a lot of work would be done after Nicky went to jail.
“I’d also found out from my Genovese bank-robbery crew that after my last meeting with Nicky, he’d sent Vinny Dragonetti around to find out how much we’d made on the New Jersey score. They stonewalled him and said they didn’t know what he was talkin’ about. I could only imagine how much that must have pissed him off.
“And in the Junior Gotti thing, it wasn’t uncommon in a high-profile hit to get rid of the shooter afterward. Lenny got arrested on additional charges right after that and his bail was revoked. I wasn’t able to see or talk with him again.
“About a week later, I ran into a guy with a street name of Black Dom from Wild Bill’s crew. I knew him and liked him. He said he had a message for me from Wild Bill: Nobody had come forward with the seven thousand yet. I told him to tell his boss that gettin’ him or anybody else killed trying to collect seven grand wasn’t very smart. Dom knew that even though I liked him, I’d shoot him right there if he tried anything. He said, ‘Andrew, I’ve got no problem with you. I’m not even gonna tell Wild Bill I saw you.’
“I felt like I was on life support—in a kill-or-be-killed situation. I wore a bulletproof vest whenever I was out on the street and was armed to the teeth. My friends thought I had dementia, because I was no longer on time for appointments. If a meeting was scheduled for six, I showed up at seven. If I was supposed to call somebody on Monday,