Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Brazil hands over mob case fugitive
John Alite allegedly partnered with Ronald Trucchio to muscle in on Tampa's valet business.
By Times Staff Writer
Published December 23, 2006
TAMPA - A suspected top leader of the Gambino crime family who fought extradition from Brazil to avoid prosecution on federal charges in Tampa has been handed over to the FBI and returned to the United States. John Edward Alite, 44, lived in Brazil for nearly three years. U.S. authorities accused Alite, also known as John Alletto, of controlling illegal businesses, illegal gambling, extortion, drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and murder as a top lieutenant in New York's Gambino family. One such business was Prestige Valet, a Tampa company federal authorities say Alite and four other men used to infiltrate the valet business. Alite's alleged business partner, Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio, and three co-defendants were found guilty of conspiracy and racketeering in Tampa federal court last month. Prosecutors said the defendants formed a crew that reported to the Gambino crime family. Federal authorities said the crew began in Queens, N.Y., in the 1980s, when Trucchio and his business partner, Alite, used their relationship with John Gotti Jr. as leverage to corner the drug trafficking market there. Alite, a former University of Tampa student, was described as the link between the New York mobsters and crimes in Tampa. He is accused of acting as the crew's street boss and running its everyday activities from Tampa. Federal police spokesman Carlos Mello said Alite flew in January 2004 to Rio de Janeiro, where he settled in the famous Copacabana beach neighborhood and taught boxing at a local school. He was arrested 10 months later at an Internet cafe "where he would go to contact his family and accomplices in the United States," Mello said. Police say the FBI tracked Alite through the e-mails he sent from the cafe. Brazilian police recently released Alite to the custody of five FBI agents, who escorted him back to the United States, Mello said. Information from Associated Press and Times files was used in this report.
[Last modified December 23, 2006, 06:32:37]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
