Operation Old Bridge is the code name for the February 7, 2008 arrests in Italy and the United States that targeted theGambino crime family; among the indicted were the reputed acting bossesJackie D'Amico,Nicholas Corozzo andJoseph Corozzo. The indictments included murder, drug trafficking, robbery, and extortion.[1]
TheFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was able to collect the needed information through informantJoseph Vollaro, (owner of a truck company on Staten Island) who secretly recorded several conversations with members of the Gambino family.[1] More than 80 people were indicted in theEastern District of New York. The case is now referred to asUnited States of America v. Agate et al. It was initially assigned to JudgeNicholas Garaufis, but later reassigned to JudgeJack B. Weinstein.
Gambino crime family boss Nicholas Corozzo turned fugitive after he was tipped off by his daughter who witnessed her husband and fellow mobster being led away by the US authorities. On May 29, 2008, Corozzo finally couldn't take life on the run anymore and so he turned himself in to authorities with his lawyer by his side. Of the 62 American defendants, 60 pleaded guilty with at least 52 of them facing no more than three years in prison.[2][3][4]
The operation broke up a growing alliance between the Gambinos and theSicilian Mafia, who wanted to get further into thedrug trade. One of those arrested in the raids in the US wasFrank Cali, a captain in the Gambino family. He was allegedly the "ambassador" in the US for the Inzerillo crime family.[5]
The name of the police operation, "Old Bridge", refers to the historical ties of an exile group of Sicilian Mafiosi across the Atlantic Ocean. After theSecond Mafia War in the beginning of the 1980s the surviving members of theInzerillo mafia family had been "allowed" to migrate to New York to avoid extermination by theCorleonesi faction and then victorious Sicilian boss of bossesSalvatore Riina. The Inzerillo's American relatives and associates of New York's Gambino family intervened on their behalf. They were allowed to settle in the States in exchange for a pledge: neither they nor their offspring would ever again set foot on Sicilian soil. They became known asgli Scappati, the Runaways. Two decades later, the Runaways were returning to Palermo. The exiles had good reasons: Riina and his successorBernardo Provenzano were both arrested and are serving life terms in Italy. The runaway Inzerillo clan was allegedly rebuilding the "Old Bridge" between America and Sicily, reestablishing the business and drug trafficking ties between the Sicilian and American mobs.[6]
Filippo Casamento (82) (Bocadifalco clan member, Bonanno family associate, former Catalano-Ganci Consortium member and Pizza Connection defendant) (released May 7, 2010)
Antonino Chiappara (42)
Sergio Corallo (42)
Giovanni De Simone (46)
Maurizio Di Fede (40)
Salvatore Emanuele Di Maggio (59) (Torretta clan member)
