Rat surfaces in Persico-Garofalo extortion case

Reputed Colombo crime family mobsters are once again finding out that the rat’s are everywhere. In whats being called the Tall Guy’s Case where Edward “Tall Guy” Garofalo Jr , Michael Persico, Theodore “skinny” Persico Jr , and others are being indicted on extortion scheme’s involving the removal of debris from Ground Zero the Fed’s have had help once again from within. Seems like a trusted friend of Garofalo has been wearing a wire and cooperating with the Fed’s since 2006 if not before.

Steven Marcus , 62 who has been a close friend of Garofalo for the last 25 years and a corrupt figure in the trucking and demolition contracting business for decades has reportedly turned rat. The relationship between Marcus and Garofalo goes back to the 1980′s when Marcus had a business relationship with Garofalo’s father who was a mob connected contractor who was killed by Gambino family member Sammy Gravano in 1990. Marcus also once had ties to Vincent Riggi who was the son of New Jersey mob boss John Riggi. Garofalo and Marcus were business partners and close enough friends that there wives were name partners in a trucking company the men owned together called Big R Trucking. They used the Bronx based company to steal union funds from 2003-2005.

Garofalo was indicted by a believed cooperation witness during the Big R Trucking partnership for a attempted murder plot which was mentioned in a recorded discussion. The Fed’s used this evidence to convict Teddy Persico Jr for racketeering but “Tall Guy” Garofalo some how skated free. This caused concern by some in the Colombo family as it was thought that Garofalo may have been let off the hook by the Fed’s because he had agreed to cooperate since he already had an extensive police record. Fed’s even visited Garofalo later to alert him of death threats against him picked up during surveillance. But Garofalo and the other defendants in the latest indictment have now learned that it was Marcus who the Fed’s targeted back in 06′ and moved against him to turn.

The Fed’s used Marcus to form a company called “All Around Trucking” the company that is now the main piece in the current indictment which was used to run the Ground Zero extortion scheme. Marcus formed the company and as a friend brought in the Persico cousins , Garofalo, and James Bombino a co-defendant in the case. During there partnership Marcus wearing a wire recorded over 800 conversations for the Fed’s. The Fed’s claim that those conversation are a treasure of mob business and will lead to more charges and indictments down the road which will not only include the Colombo crime family but also the Gambino and Genovese crime families.

A source said that Marcus was a truck broker who had dealings with everyone in the industry and there are a lot of people looking over their shoulders. Marcus and his wife have been moved out of their New Jersey home by the Fed’s as part of his deal and relocated. Lawyers for the Garofalo and Michael Persico say that the Fed’s are only using snippets of longer discussions that have no threatening implications at all to unfairly paint there clients as mob linked criminals. The lawyers also make note that neither have any prior arrest or convictions and have not been and are not currently any danger to the community.