<p>A powerful Colombo crime family mobster pleaded guilty to racketeering on Thursday, over a year after a photo was snapped of him relaxing in a pool while on the run from the feds.</p>
<p>Ralph DiMatteo, the Colombo family’s third-most powerful member, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/06/high-ranking-gangster-ralph-dimatteo-who-lounged-shirtless-in-a-pool-while-on-the-lam-pleads-guilty-to-racketeering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pleaded guilty</a> in federal court in Brooklyn to extortion, conspiracy, and money laundering between 2020 and 2021, including a plot to threaten a high-level union official.</p>
<p>In September, 2021, the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office for the Eastern District of New York leveled serious <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/14-defendants-indicted-including-entire-administration-colombo-organized-crime-family" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charges</a> at 14 people, including DiMatteo and the &#8220;e<span class="field-formatter--string">ntire administration of the Colombo organized crime family,&#8221; the office <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/14-defendants-indicted-including-entire-administration-colombo-organized-crime-family" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.</span></p>
<p>A day before the charges were announced, DiMatteo flew to Florida, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/06/high-ranking-gangster-ralph-dimatteo-who-lounged-shirtless-in-a-pool-while-on-the-lam-pleads-guilty-to-racketeering/">The New York Post reported</a>. After he was supposed to turn himself into the feds, his son <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/09/17/mobster-in-colombo-takedown-surrenders-after-being-spotted-in-florida/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> a photo on Twitter of DiMatteo relaxing in a pool with the water up to his chest, leaning on the side and looking directly at the camera. He wore a large gold crucifix around his neck, and his tatted right arm was visible in the photo.</p>
<p>DiMatteo subsequently turned himself into authorities.</p>
<p>In court on Thursday, DiMatteo, 68, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/06/high-ranking-gangster-ralph-dimatteo-who-lounged-shirtless-in-a-pool-while-on-the-lam-pleads-guilty-to-racketeering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> wore a dark blazer, dark blue shirt, and a dark green tie.</p>
<p>DiMatteo and the 13 other defendants were hit with a slew of charges including labor racketeering, extortion, money laundering, and loansharking involving a &#8220;long-running effort&#8221; to &#8220;infiltrate and take control&#8221; of a Queens labor union.</p>
<p>DiMatteo was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/14-defendants-indicted-including-entire-administration-colombo-organized-crime-family" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> of laundering money from the labor union&#8217;s health care benefit program to the Colombo crime family’s leaders. He was also accused of using extortion including &#8220;direct threats of bodily harm&#8221; to control the union&#8217;s management and force it to make decisions directly benefitting the Colombo family.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said DiMatteo was the Colombo family&#8217;s consigliere, or a high-ranking member that advises the family&#8217;s head and resolves disputes.</p>
<p>The judge said guidelines recommend 41 and 51 months in prison for DiMatteo, who is set to be sentenced in October, <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/07/06/high-ranking-gangster-ralph-dimatteo-who-lounged-shirtless-in-a-pool-while-on-the-lam-pleads-guilty-to-racketeering/">according to The New York Post</a>.</p>
<p>Among the other people charged were Andrew “Mush” Russo, the boss of the Colombo crime family, Benjamin “Benji” Castellazzo, the underboss, and a member of the Bonanno crime family.</p>
<p>“Today’s charges describe a long-standing, ruthless pattern by the administration of the Colombo crime family, its captains, members and associates, of conspiring to exert control over the management of a labor union by threatening to inflict bodily harm on one of its senior officials and devising a scheme to divert and launder vendor contract funds from its health care benefit program,&#8221; said acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis in a statement when the charges were announced.</p>
<p>Kasulis said the defendants engaged in drug trafficking as well.</p>
<p>In one example of the alleged crimes, prosecutors claimed Vincent Ricciardo, known as &#8220;Vinny Unions,&#8221; 75, threatened to kill a senior labor union official in a profanity-laced rant.</p>
<p>“I’ll put him in the ground right in front of his wife and kids, right in front of his f***ing house, you laugh all you want pal, I’m not afraid to go to jail, let me tell you something, to prove a point? I would f***ing shoot him right in front of his wife and kids, call the police, f*** it, let me go, how long you think I’m gonna last anyway?” Ricciardo said in a recording, according to prosecutors.</p>
<p>&#8220;The underbelly of the crime families in New York City is alive and well,&#8221; FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll said in September, adding that &#8220;we&#8217;re going to catch them.&#8221;</p>

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Colombo Mobster Pleads Guilty To Racketeering After Relaxing At Pool On The Run

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Colombo Mobster Pleads Guilty To Racketeering After Relaxing At Pool On The Run