By Jerry Capeci

Senior Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy, a veteran of several Mafia trials, will take over for Vincent Heintz, a Bronx assistant district attorney tossed from the case for unauthorized contact with the news media.

McCarthy joined the U.S. attorney's office as a paralegal in the early 1980s. He became an assistant U.S. attorney in 1986 and cut his teeth on the Pizza Connection case in which 18 Italian and American gangsters were convicted of smuggling heroin into the U.S. through a string of pizzerias stretching from New York to Ohio.

He was also part of two Pizza Connection  spin-offs, including the investigation that led to the murder/racketeering/drug convictions of the leader of the Sicilian faction of the Gambino family, capo John Gambino (right) and his brother Joseph, (left) a soldier, and lead prosecutor in the 1995 terror trial of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine others.

Prosecutors will retire their long-time star mob witness Alfonse (Little Al) D'Arco and replace him with a fresh face with more current information about mob doings — budding superstar turncoat Frank Gioia Jr., sources said.

"Gioia grew up in the mob. He's articulate, and his knowledge goes back long before he became a made man," one law enforcement source said.

Gioia, 31, was inducted into the Luchese crime family in 1991, a month after D'Arco, (left) the family's acting boss, had defected. Gioia met Gotti at the  wake of a Luchese associate the following year and can testify about Gotti's reputed status as acting boss for his imprisoned father, sources said.

Since Gioia began cooperating in late 1994, about 70 mobsters, associates and drug dealers have been convicted of mob-style crimes based on his information. All but two, Luchese mobster Michael Spinelli (right) and his brother Robert, pleaded guilty. The Spinellis were convicted of the attempted murder of Patricia Capozzalo, the sister of  cooperating capo Peter (Fat Pete) Chiodo.

As a reward, sources said, Gioia's seven-year sentence was reduced to time served, and on Monday, Gioia was released from prison, given a new identity and relocated under the federal witness protection program.

McCarthy was at the head of the prosecution table opposite Gotti lawyer Gerald Shargel (right) and he addressed most of the questions from White Plains Federal Judge Barrington Parker about the issues.

But McCarthy's got some catching up to do, especially about the facts surrounding a Feb. 2, 1997 search of a Queens basement that will be the focus of a hearing that Parker has scheduled for tomorrow.

Gotti's lawyers argue that investigators with the state Organized Crime Task Force broke in before obtaining a search warrant, and that the warrant itself was improper. The search took place two years after investigators began tapping phones and bugging cars and offices used by Gotti (left) and his pals.

McCarthy, who used documents and whispered support from co-prosecutors Carol Sipperly and Marjorie Miller, was barely able to keep pace with Shargel and co-counsel Serita Kedia during the session.

Gotti, who faces 20 years if convicted, goes to trial with four others Apr. 5. He is charged with extortion, loansharking and gambling, phone card fraud, robbing a drug dealer and home mortgage fraud.

Unlike his jailed-for-life Dapper Dad, Junior is not charged with murder, or tax evasion. The elder Gotti, who was moved five months ago to a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo. where he underwent throat cancer surgery, was returned to his maximum security cell in Marion, Ill. last week.  

Junior is embarrassed, Shargel told Judge Parker last week, that sister Victoria, (right) the best selling author who posted the lion's share of the $10 million, has to pay the $100,000 a month for the 24-hour-a-day guards.

Sipperly objected to any change in security, charging the money for the guards was actually coming from Victoria's reputed mobster husband and  high earning member of Junior's crew, Carmine Agnello, and is cash he normally forwards to his brother-in-law .

Parker said he would reconsider the issue but for the time being, the private guard service would be an all day affair.

It's been more than four years since the Boston Red Sox fan at the left slipped out of Beantown with a lady friend and skipped out on federal extortion and racketeering charges.

James (Whitey) Bulger, a reputed South Boston gangster and onetime FBI informer, and Catherine Greig, (right) a former hair dresser and dog lover, have done a remarkable job of avoiding capture, even if, as some suspect, the FBI hasn't really pulled out all the stops to nab an old friend who handed up scores of rival gangsters in the 1970's and 1980's.

Bulger, 69, and Greig, 47, have been featured on America's Most Wanted and the FBI has offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to Bulger's arrest. If you spot them and are looking for a payoff, you can call the FBI in Boston at 617-742-5533, or any other FBI field office.

For decades, Bulger and Steve (The Rifleman) Flemmi doubled as leaders of Boston's Irish gangsters known as the Winter Hill Gang and FBI informers against Italian American gangsters from the North End. Flemmi, who was indicted and arrested along with New England Mafia boss Frank (Cadillac Frank) Salemme, claims the FBI gave him and Bulger a virtual license to steal in return for their informant work and tipped Bulger about the 1995 indictment.

Since fleeing, Bulger has been spotted in Holtsville, L.I., where he bought a car seven days after he split and where the car was found 18 months later with 60,000 miles on the odometer. He and Greig made three visits to Grand Isle, Louisiana, and are believed to have spent time in  Chicago; Sheridan, Wy.; Manhattan, and Okeema Ok.

The trail has been cold since February, 1998, when a man resembling  Bulger was seen at an Irish festival in West Palm Beach, Fla. He may have  traveled to Italy, Ireland and Canada.

"He's not your typical fugitive," said Boston FBI boss Barry Mawn. He is charming, intelligent, and has a way with kids. But, Bulger has "a violent temper and possesses a knife at all times" and should be considered "armed and dangerous."

Mawn denies charges by lawyers that the FBI aided Bulger to escape and don't want to arrest him for fear of what Bulger might say about the FBI's dealings with him over the years.

"If his apprehension resulted in new allegations against the FBI, then we will properly deal with them," he said.