John Cerrella

John "Johnny Sideburns" Cerrella (born 1941) is a New York mobster and suspected Capo in the Lucchese crime family. [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column345.htm]

Lucchese member

Ranked as a soldier in the Lucchese crime family during the 1980s, Cerrella reportedly worked around the Queens and Long Island factions of the crime family with extortion, loansharking and illegal gambling activities. But when the notorious Lucchese family leaders Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso went on to eliminate anyone who they considered rivals or potential informants, US law enforcement came up with a large indictment, involving racketeering and murder charges, leaving Amuso and Casso to become fugitives. Around this time, when Amuso and Casso began to control the crime family from afar, Cerrella was promoted in the early 1990s, to the rank of "capo" or "captain" in the Queens faction. Working below Amuso's Acting boss, Joseph "Little Joe" DeFede, Cerrella began operating with Joseph "Joe C." Caridi, a captain of Long Island, and Steven "Wonderboy" Crea of the Bronx section, under DeFede's reign in the early 1990s.

Rivalry from Brooklyn

As Amuso was captured and imprisoned for life in the early 1990s, he continued ruling the family from prison, using Joseph DeFede] , however, powerful Underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso was still at large and used the newly-made Consigliere of the Brooklyn faction, Frank "Big Frank" Lastorino, to rule almost half of the Lucchese crime family. Brooklyn leaders George Zappola, Frank Papagni and Frank Gioia, Jr. then began plotting to overthrow the Lucchese family regime along with Lastorino, and put out contracts on prominent leader DeFede, and captains Steven "Wonderboy" Crea, as well as conspirying to murder Joseph Caridi, now Cerrella's associate, and Louis "Louie Bagels" Daidone of the Queens faction. Cerrella, aligned with Crea, Caridi and Daidone, plus Bronx captains Aniello "Neil" Migliore and Joseph "Joey Dee" DiNapoli, was now involved in a large conspiracy, that could easily be his downfall, however, due to large indictments at the time, as well as Casso being captured and jailed for life, the Brooklyn leaders were sent to prison. Around this time in the mid 1990s, Cerrella and Caridi began lucrative extortion operations on Long Island, with Louis "Louie Bagels" Daidone, now the new family Consigliere. [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column220.htm] [http://www.nysun.com/article/17004]

L.I. and indictments

According to Mob expert Jerry Capeci; After Joseph "Little Joe" DeFede, the former Acting Boss of the Lucchese crime family turned state's evidence upon his releasement from prison, he gave up Cerrella and Joseph Caridi, including soldiers Joseph Datello and Vincent "Vinny Baldy" Salanardi, who in one incident with Cerrella extorted more than $7000 to $10,000 a night from the owners of a popular Freeport L.I. restaurant bar, who had solicited the Lucchese crime family to oust Lewis Kasman, an investor in the club who had begun diverting assets to himself. [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column308.htm] DeFede also gave the prosecutors operations of racketeering, loansharking, illegal gambling, and even murder and conspiracy charges, which saw to it that official Consigliere and then-current Lucchese family Acting Boss, Louis "Louie Bagels" Daidone, was put on trial in the year of 2003. This led also to the arrest and indictment of Cerrella, who was tried for various criminal charges, among them was the L.I. extortion operation with Caridi. [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column328.htm]

Guilty plea

After releasing out on bail and while on trial, Cerrella was again picked up by US law enforcement, after FBI discovered that Cerrella had been using as much as eight different cellphones and there wasn't enough resources to bug all of them, including all of his calls, which sometimes were two of the time. This led the authorities into confution and believed that he was conducting criminal activities with known members of the Lucchese crime family. However, Cerrella's lawyer disclosed this allugation, and announced that it was because of the limited private calls Cerrella was allowed to have due to all the surveillance, that he changed his cellphones every other week.. [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column345.htm]

Also during that year, was the plea-agreement for the extortion and loansharking charges, which was the result of a yearlong investigation by US law enforcement, that Cerrella accepted. In May, 2003, Cerrella was sentenced to eight years in prison. As of March, 2008, Cerrella is incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Elkton, Ohio. His projected release-date is November 28, 2009. [http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&LastName=Cerrella&Middle=&FirstName=John&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=0&y=0]

References

External links

* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column345.htm This Week in Gangland: Riggi To Throw In The Towel] by Jerry Capeci
* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column308.htm This Week in Gangland: Mafia Ambassador or Deadbeat] by Jerry Capeci
* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column328.htm This Week in Gangland: Vinny Baldy Tells Family(s)Good-Bye] by Jerry Capeci