Officials bust drug, gambling operation

LYNN – Four Revere men and two from Peabody are among 31 who top state law enforcement officials Thursday said sold drugs, ran gambling and extortion operations and beat and maimed people who did not pay gambling debts.”This was a major and complete enterprise that made money through gambling and drugs. These were not individuals working on their own,” said state Attorney General Martha Coakley in announcing arrests and indictments of the 31.The men face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping, armed home invasion and criminal usury (loan sharking). Some, including Mark Rossetti, the East Boston man police claim is the head of the criminal enterprise, have already been arrested. Rossetti pleaded innocent in September to heroin trafficking charges.”These were the worst of the worst,” said State Police Major James Hanafin.It was after nabbing Rossetti in May that police offered the first hint of a major law enforcement investigation into a crime ring that included what prosecutors described as Rossetti’s role as an organized crime “capo” and protector of drug dealers and buyers.Rossetti, according to authorities, replaced Carmen Salvatore DiNunzio, known as “The Cheese Man,” as underboss of the New England branch of the mafia in summer 2009 after DiNunzio was sentenced to serve six years in prison for extortion, promoting an illegal gaming operation and conspiracy to violate state gaming laws.Coakley and District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett Thursday said Rossetti headed up a multi-layered organization that included an embezzlement and extortion arm employing Michael Petrillo, 56, of Peabody, Nicholas Gregory, 67, of Revere and Robert Sofia, 63, of Revere.Another arm of the enterprise sold marijuana and prosecutors claim Michele Grieco, 51, of Peabody, Mark Weddleton, 52, of Revere and Gerard Cioffi, 52, of Revere were involved in that part of criminal business.”All these defendants are innocent until proven guilty,” noted Coakley.Blodgett and Coakley said State Police Special Service Section investigators started to uncover the organization’s operations a year ago when they began probing illegal gambling and loan sharking by a North Andover resident.”As they started looking into different pieces of this, the scope just grew,” Coakley said.Blodgett said investigators interviewed individuals who said they had been beaten, sometimes maimed, by organization enforcers collecting gambling debts amounting to thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars.”We have demonstrative evidence by way of pictures that is pretty graphic in terms of injuries,” Blodgett said. “These were quite shockingly vicious attacks.”Blodgett said the organization’s loan sharking arm charged interest rates equivalent to 150 percent annually. Its drug dealers trafficked in marijuana, heroin and cocaine, using a device called a heroin press to prepare the drug for sale.Blodgett said the organization has probably been in operation for “a number of years” and said the indictments “put a major dent in organized crime” in the Boston area. Not all of the organization’s members have been arrested and charged with crimes but Blodgett said prosecutors think some of the men now in custody were planning murders prior to their arrests.”This will come out in trial,” he said.Revere police helped gather information on those arrested and a home invasion and kidnapping in Revere was linked to a mid-level organization member prosecutors identified as Yasmani Quezada.Blodgett said prosecutors were able to crack the criminal enterprise in part by setting up a statewide grand jury sitting in Boston but charged with hearing indictment details crossing county jurisdictions. The grand jury heard testimony from 60 witnesses over 27 days.”This is a crippling blow to this particular enterprise,” Coakley said.