For immediate release
December 10, 2008
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/flm/prr                                                  

GUILTY PLEA UNSEALED: MAN ACKNOWLEDGES ROLE AS TOP GAMBINO ASSOCIATE

Tampa, Florida—United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton today announced the unsealing of a Notice of Elements of Offense, Maximum Penalty, And Factual Basis (“Notice And Factual Basis”) related to a guilty plea to a RICO conspiracy entered by John E. Alite on January 16, 2008. As a result of his guilty plea, ALITE, 46-years-old, faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, a $250,000.00 fine, and a five-year term of supervised release. A copy of the Notice And Factual Basis is attached.

The unsealing of the Notice And Factual Basis and guilty plea were necessitated by a U.S. District Court's Order in the Eastern District of New York, requiring the government to provide certain information about prospective government witnesses to defense counsel in a case set for trial in January 2009. The Eastern District of New York case (Case No. 1:08-cr-76-JBW) charges Charles "Charlie Canig" Carneglia, and others, with RICO conspiracy. The indictment in that case specifically charges CARNEGLIA as a Gambino Crime Family soldier who committed five murders, including the murder of Jose Delgado Rivera, an armored car guard shot on December 14, 1990, at John F. Kennedy International Airport during a robbery, and the murder of Louis DiBono, a Gambino Crime Family soldier who was murdered on October 4, 1990, in the World Trade Center parking garage, and with marijuana trafficking, robberies, and extortion.

ALITE, who briefly attended the University of Tampa in the early 1980's, was originally indicted on August 17, 2004, in the Tampa Division of the Middle District of Florida (Case No. 8:04-cr-348-T-24TGW), in a case that charged Ronald J. Trucchio, a/k/a "Ronnie One-Arm," ALITE, Steven Catalano, Michael Malone, Pasquale Andriano, and Terry L. Scaglione, with RICO conspiracy, and charged ALITE, MALONE, and SCAGLIONE with Interference With Commerce by Threats or Violence. Later, on June 29, 2005, a grand jury returned a Superseding Indictment in the same case, charging an additional defendant, Kevin M. McMahon, with participating in the RICO conspiracy, and included additional specific allegations that TRUCCHIO, ALITE, and others engaged in racketeering activity involving the distribution and possession with intent to distribute five (5) kilograms or more of cocaine. ANDRIANO, charged in the original indictment, pleaded guilty to the charges against him in June 2005, and was therefore not included in the Superseding Indictment as a charged defendant.

The case was tried in Tampa before U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew in the fall of 2006. MALONE pleaded guilty shortly before trial. During the trial, MALONE testified and described his role in the charged RICO conspiracy, including his part in a robbery and various extortions in Tampa and in the 1996 murder of John Gebert in Queens, New York. TRUCCHIO, CATALANO, SCAGLIONE, and McMAHON were all convicted at trial. TRUCCHIO was sentenced to life imprisonment, and CATALANO and SCAGLIONE were sentenced to prison terms of 192 months and 57 months, respectively.

ALITE was arrested by Brazilian federal police on November 24, 2004, in Copacabana, Brazil. ALITE was extradited to the United States in December 2006, shortly after the trial had concluded. ALITE's case remains before U.S. District Judge Bucklew, as do the cases concerning MALONE and MCMAHON.

During his plea hearing and in the related Notice And Factual Basis, ALITE acknowledged his role as a top associate in the Gambino Crime Family and specifically admitted participating in the murder of George Grosso on December 20, 1988, and in the murder of Bruce John Gotterup on November 20, 1991, as well as in four other murder conspiracies, including a conspiracy to kill Gambino Crime Family soldier Louis DiBono in 1990. Prior to the January 16, 2008 plea hearing, the Grosso murder remained an unsolved cold case.

ALITE also acknowledged his participation in a variety of other previously uncharged violent criminal conduct, including: (1) shooting at least eight men; (2) conspiring to shoot others, including a conspiracy to shoot an individual in Hyde Park in Tampa, Florida in 1993; (3) armed home invasion robberies and armed robberies of individuals and businesses in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida; and (4) extortionate acts relating to valet parking businesses and the business of bar and lounge security. In addition to the violent criminal conduct, ALITE acknowledged trafficking in cocaine and then using the proceeds from the illegal drug trafficking activity, and from other criminal activity, to invest in “legal” businesses and property in New York, New Jersey, and Florida, specifically including a glass business, a valet business, and a club/lounge business, located in Tampa, Florida. During the 2006 trial in Tampa, evidence revealed that ALITE, and others associated with ALITE, owned and/or controlled a number of Tampa-based valet parking businesses from the late 1980's through the date of the original 2004 Indictment.

The unsealing of ALITE's plea hearing and the related Notice And Factual Basis is the latest result of a lengthy ongoing investigation coordinated by the Clearwater, Florida and the Brooklyn Queens Metropolitan FBI offices, and which included the Miami and Philadelphia FBI offices, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, the Tampa Police Department, the New York City Police Department, the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, the FBI Legal Attache! to Brazil, the Brazilian federal police, and Interpol. The investigation and related cases (United Statesv. John A. Gotti, Case No. 8:08-cr-312-T-23EAJ, and United States v. John A. Burke,James V. Cadicamo, David D’Arpino, Michael D. Finnerty, and Guy T. Peden, Case No. 8:08-cr-323-T-23TGW) are being investigated and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jay G. Trezevant.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.