Garbage Boss Gets No Respect

By Jerry Capeci

THE feds wasted little time picking off the latest mobster to reach the top of the Colombo crime family - nailing Andrew Russo (right) on racketeering charges.

Russo, a cousin of longtime boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, was arrested and charged essentially with being the mob muscle for a private carter who allegedly collected garbage from a Long Island town under "false and fraudulent pretenses."

Law enforcement sources say Persico, (left) recently stepped down to bring an end to a long feud with rival mobsters loyal to former acting boss Victor (Little Vic) Orena.

Russo, 63, is not charged with any violent acts in a 30-count indictment that lists crimes of mail fraud, labor racketeering and money laundering - but federal prosecutors have managed to send him directly to jail while he awaits trial.

That's because the FBI spotted Russo meeting last May with reputed Colombo underboss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace and Russo was also hit with violating parole restrictions against associating with organized crime figures.

The charges in the racketeering indictment are by no means penny ante but normally they would not have resulted in Russo, 63, being jailed to await trial. In fact, a federal judge set bail at $3 million - which Russo was ready to post - but the parole warrant made the issue of bail a moot point.

The indictment alleges that Russo, who was in federal prison from 1986 to 1994, has been the power behind private carter Dennis Hickey, (right) who has earned about $3 million a year picking up garbage in the town of Islip, L.I.

The feds claim that Hickey's been doing that illegally since 1987 when he pleaded guilty to bribing town officials to use the Islip town dump without paying the required fees and should forfeit $15 million is assets.

And Russo, who is identified in the indictment as an acting boss, is cooling his heels in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn with no official recognition that he's the Boss of the Colombo family.

Meanwhile, Genovese boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante, who is charged with ordering eight murders and plotting to kill rival mob boss John Gotti, awaits his racketeering trial in the relative comfort of his mother's Greenwich Village apartment.

Gigante, who is due to appear in court for a status conference Oct. 4, is being prosecuted by the same U.S. Attorney's office, the one that's based in Brooklyn and handles federal cases in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island.

As Gang Land followers know, Gigante was arraigned this month on racketeering charges that were lodged in 1990. That indictment came a decade after Gigante took over as Genovese boss. Then it took prosecutors six years to convince a federal judge that Gigante had been feigning insanity for 30 years and was competent to stand trial. After all that, you'd think his prosecutors would seek to remand him, but they didn't.
             
In Manhattan, federal prosecutors broke off discussions with lawyers seeking bail for reputed Genovese acting boss Liborio (Barney) Bellomo and received more time to oppose a bail motion by Bellomo, who has been incarcerated since June.

Bellomo has passed two lie detector tests concerning the only act of violence he is charged with - a 1991 gangland style slaying - and argues that a substantial bail package with strict house arrest provisions should be sufficient to insure his appearance at trial next year.

Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan has scheduled a hearing on Bellomo's motion for next week.