In the mob, murder is strictly business – and the bigger the business, the better.  

It is nearly two decades since Mafia boss Paul Castellano was gunned down in Midtown Manhattan, but law enforcement authorities are still learning about the commercial advantages behind the slaying.

For instance, up until his father’s dramatic demise outside Sparks Steak House on Dec. 16, 1985, son Philip Castellano had a good thing going with his Staten Island-based concrete company, Scara-mix, Inc. Thanks to his dad’s clout, the firm had the lion’s share of contracts on the island, and was allowed to operate non-union. Best of all, he didn’t have to share the profits. 

But after the murder, things changed quickly. Castellano was ordered to start paying tribute to the men who killed his father – John Gotti and Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano. While his non-union arrangement and inside edge on local construction jobs remained, he had to pay – and pay big for the privilege. In the last decade alone, a time frame when the Dapper Don lived and died in prison, Castellano paid out more than $1.5 million to Gotti’s underlings in the crime family, Gang Land has learned.

After his father’s murder, “Phil (left) got word from (crime family capo) Tommy Gambino that he had to pay $3 a yard (of concrete,) about $25,000 per month,” said one law enforcement source, adding that “about 80 per cent went to John Gotti and Sammy Gravano” with the  

remainder going to corrupt leaders of Teamsters Union officials Robert Sasso and Michael Carbone of Local 282, the Gambino-controlled union whose drivers deliver concrete to building sites. 

Sources say that turncoat capo Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo has given the feds evidence that two-thirds of the cash Castellano forked over after Gotti and Gravano were jailed – about $1 million – was shared by two of the Dapper Don’s brothers, Peter and Richard, and by mob scion John A. (Junior) Gotti. (right)

Mikey Scars split the remaining $500,000 with soldiers Thomas (Huck) Carbonaro and Edward Garafola, according to DiLeonardo, who is scheduled to testify next month at the racketeering trial of Carbonaro and Peter Gotti.

Among other things, Dileonardo’s testimony will buttress earlier statements by turncoat DeCavalcante capo Anthony Rotondo (left) that Scara Mix “was with the Gambino family, officially” during the 1980s and 1990s.

Since the early 1990s, according to Mikey Scars, (right) Castellano, 59, paid the family $10,000 a month “for the right to operate” Scara Mix, a major concrete company in the Elm Park section of Staten Island that he has operated since 1980.

Located in the shadow of the Bayonne Bridge at 2537 Richmond Terrace, Scara Mix is adjacent to American Ready Mix, another Castellano-owned company that is also with the Gambino family, according to Mikey Scars.

Incorporated in 1996, the concrete plant pays $5000 a month in order to operate as a non-union shop, according to DiLeonardo.

Carmine Sciandra, (left) an acting capo who took over the crew once headed by Thomas Gambino, nephew of the slain Mafia boss and cousin of Philip Castellano, (left) was the go-between who forwarded the cash payments to DiLeonardo, sources say.

At one point, when Sciandra, who is related to both Castellano and Gambino, authorized a decrease in payoffs because of a drop in business, then-acting boss Junior Gotti doubted whether Sciandra “was telling the truth” and told Mikey Scars to check out his claims.

During the mid 1990s, DiLeonardo and his brother-in-law, soldier Frank (Frankie Fapp) Fappiano, served as a one-two punch for the Gambinos.

Fappiano, who followed Mikey Scars into the FBI’s growing stable of mob turncoats and took the stand against Gotti and Carbonaro earlier this week, was the Local 282 muscle who threatened construction companies with costly labor problems if they failed to pay up. He testified that the mob made “millions and millions” in construction industry payoffs 

Gang Land wonders what Castellano intends to do now that Mikey Scars, Gravano, Garafola, Huck and the still surviving Gottis are in prison and Frankie Fapp (right) and the former union officials have been convicted, but Castellano did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

Major League Baseball responded with a shrug to Gang Land’s recent disclosure that New York Mets pitcher John Franco provided Bonanno mobsters complimentary tickets for a Mets game with the Montreal Expos at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium during the early 1990s.

Law enforcement officials, however, especially those in Canada, are feverishly trying to determine the specific game that the Bonanno wiseguys attended and other details about the excursion they took to discuss important business with members of the family’s Sicilian faction in Montreal.

During the trip, according to turncoat capo Frank (Curly) Lino, (right) a New York contingent headed by consigliere Anthony Spero was introduced to a “made member” of the faction who was also a Canadian public official, Alfonso Gagliano, who strongly disputes the allegation. 

Last month, Gang Land reported that the trip took place in 1993; in court papers in Montreal, assistant U.S. attorney Nicolas Bourtin said it occurred in “approximately 1992.” We both may be wrong.

The prevailing wisdom of law enforcement officials on both sides of the border is that the trip took place in early July 1991, following the June 24 death of then-boss Philip Rastelli, 73. Imprisoned for labor racketeering, Rastelli was given a

compassionate early release on June 4 when prison doctors determined that he would soon succumb to liver cancer. 

“The purpose of their visit was to inform the Canadian Bonannos that Joseph Massino (left) was to become the boss of the Bonanno family,” according to a report by FBI agents Christine Grubert and Jay Kramer.

During their stay, the New York wiseguys visited several “discos and topless joints” and were treated by their Montreal mob colleagues to a “made members” only dinner at a local catering hall, the agents wrote.

After watching the Mets beat the Expos – the Amazin’s swept the July 1-to-July 4 four-game series – the wiseguys “went out with Mets players” and enjoyed a late-night snack. No matter which game they saw, Franco’s pitching exploits were surely a topic of conversation.

The star reliever, who saved 30 of the Mets’ 77 victories that year, hurled two scoreless innings, notching three strikeouts and his 16^th and 17^th saves in the first two games of the series.