Surviving the Mob - Dennis Griffin [75]
“The arresting officers were part of a joint task force made up of FBI agents, New York State Police, NYPD, and state parole. They took me back in my apartment, put me up against the wall, and searched me and my apartment. They found all kinds of guns. There was a Mossberg pump riot shotgun, a Baretta nine millimeter, a thirty-eight-caliber revolver, a machine gun, and three hundred rounds of ammunition.
“During the search I overheard two of the parole guys talking. One of them told the other that when I surrendered on the stoop, I pulled my jacket back. He thought I was going for a gun and came very close to shooting me. I had pulled my jacket back, but only to show I wasn’t armed. He was pretty nerved up over what had almost happened. I remember his hand was still shaking when they transported me to the precinct.
“An investigator named Tom Scanlon searched my wallet and pulled my Joseph Conti driver’s license out of it. There was no doubt he already knew it was going to be there. He said to one of the other cops, ‘Hey, I’ve got it.’ Then he said to me, ‘Andrew, you got so many problems that this one’s on us.’ He put the license in his pocket and that was the last I ever heard about my fake identification.
“And then he asked me if I knew what this was all about. I told him I had no idea. He said, ‘You’re the last one we got. Your whole crew is in jail. This has something to do with your uncle down in Florida.’ I knew he was talking about Nicky. And my marijuana partner thought that Nicky was my blood uncle. And who better to tell them about Joseph Conti than the guy who made up the documents for me? What Scanlon had said answered some of my questions.
“They had placed Charlotte in handcuffs too. Scanlon told me I had two options. I could keep my mouth shut and they’d arrest her along with me until they could find out if she had anything to do with the guns. Or I could be a man and take responsibility for what they’d found. If I did that, they’d just run a warrant check on her and turn her loose. I told them it was my place and anything they found was mine. I said let’s leave civilians out of this. They ran their check, then released her.
“After they finished the search I was taken to a precinct on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn. That’s where I first met a detective named Michael Callahan. He was working with the Joint Organized-Crime Task Force and was assigned to the Lucchese squad. Then they took me to another facility, where they said some people wanted to question me.
“While this was going on, Charlotte had called my mother, who in turn had contacted Mike Yannotti. He had her go to the office of his lawyer, a guy named Joe Muri. He told her that he’d see what he could do about getting me bailed out.
“I knew I was in a bad spot, but I wasn’t sure exactly how bad. I was no doubt facing a lot of years behind bars from the legal system. And if I was willing to take it on the chin and do the time, I’d be protecting the very same guys who wanted me dead. I needed more time to think and try to figure out where things really stood for me. So when I talked with Callahan and an FBI agent named Vince Girard, I hinted that I might consider talking with them again. I didn’t give them anything or promise them anything. I just kind of opened the door a crack for future reference.
“They explained to me that I’d be going through central booking and then to the Brooklyn House of Detention on the parole-violation charge. They’d arrest me again in a few days on federal charges. I told them I thought they were full of shit, that they didn’t have anything on me. They kinda laughed at me. Like they were going to open my eyes real soon.
“The law had gotten a fugitive and a bunch of weapons off the streets.