Mob Figure, 2
Others Charged In Drug Deal
The indictments follow an undercover
investigation that is part of a larger probe touching on a local union and a
Cranston business.
BY MIKE
STANTON
Journal
Staff Writer
A federal
grand jury yesterday indicted mobster Matthew L. Guglielmetti Jr. and two
associates for cocaine-trafficking conspiracy.
The indictment
comes a week after authorities arrested the three men as part of a larger probe
that has touched on organized crime, a local union and a Cranston concrete
company.
Guglielmetti,
56, a capo regime in the Patriarca crime family, was charged with arranging to
protect a large shipment of cocaine that was passing through Rhode Island en
route to Canada. He was indicted along with the two men he allegedly provided
to guard the drugs in a local hotel, Alan Blamires and Anthony Moscarelli.
The three men,
who were arrested last week, are being held without bail at the Wyatt Federal
Detention Center in Central Falls, pending a bail hearing at 2 p.m. tomorrow
before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Martin.
Yesterday's
indictment means that the federal government will not have to present evidence
at tomorrow's hearing regarding the alleged crime.
Authorities
have been tightlipped about the larger undercover investigation that led to the
drug charges. The results of a search warrant last Thursday of the Laborers'
International Union in Providence and Capital City Concrete in Cranston remain
sealed.
In an
affidavit supporting last week's charges, FBI Special Agent Joseph Degnan said
that several undercover agents had been conducting an investigation that
includes audio and video surveillance. The probe centered around an undercover agent
who posed as a businessman and operated an unidentified business with
Guglielmetti, who was a silent partner.
Last November,
during the investigation, Guglielmetti told his undercover FBI business partner
that he needed to make some cash for Christmas. According to the FBI affidavit,
the mobster and the agent then hatched a scheme in which Guglielmetti would be
paid $1,000 per kilo for "baby-sitting" 67 kilos of cocaine; they
also discussed laundering at least half the proceeds once the cocaine was sold
in Canada.
The deal came
together the night of Jan. 18, when Blamires and Moscarelli, allegedly acting
on orders from Guglielmetti, went to a Rhode Island hotel room where 67 kilos
of cocaine were hidden in two suitcases, accompanied by two purported drug
traffickers who were undercover FBI agents.
The four men
allegedly remained in the hotel room together, with the cocaine, for five
hours, while Guglielmetti waited at another hotel with the undercover agent
posing as his business partner.
At 11 p.m.,
the undercover agent with Guglielmetti called the other hotel room and told one
of the agents there that Blamires and Moscarelli were done. The authorities
charge that Guglielmetti subsequently talked by phone with Moscarelli, and that
Moscarelli and Blamires then left the hotel room.
The three men
were arrested last Thursday, after Guglielmetti met with the undercover agent
at an unspecified location in Johnston, expecting to collect his money, the
government alleges.
If convicted,
the three men face prison terms of 10 years to life.
Authorities
say that the meetings were secretly recorded on audio and/or videotape.
Hours after
Guglielmetti's arrest last Thursday, local, state and federal law-enforcement
officials arrived with search warrants at the offices of the New England
Laborers, in the Arthur E. Coia Building at 226 S. Main St., Providence, and
also at the offices of Capital City Concrete at 108 Phenix Ave., Cranston.
One of the
Laborers' officials whose office was searched, Dominick Ruggerio, administrator
of the New England Laborers' Labor-Management Cooperation Trust and a state
senator from Providence, has not returned calls seeking comment.
The owner of
Capital City Concrete, Lori Mason DeRobbio, has declined comment. Her husband,
Albert E. DeRobbio II, who worked for the company, could not be reached for
comment. The couple are divorcing.
Among the
records that authorities seized from Capital City Concrete were files
pertaining to its role in building the parking garage during the past few years
for the new Kent County Courthouse in Warwick.
Guglielmetti,
a laborers' union member, worked for Capital City Concrete on that
courthouse-related project, as did Albert DeRobbio. DeRobbio is the son of
Chief District Court Judge Albert E. DeRobbio.
A spokeswoman
for Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams said yesterday that the court
has not been contacted by the FBI for any information about the Kent County
Courthouse garage. Nor has Williams received any indication that the courthouse
garage project is a focus of the federal probe.
The
spokeswoman, Dyana Koelsch, said that the chief justice wanted to clear up some
misconceptions since the investigation became public last week that he was
involved in choosing Capital City Concrete for the project. She said that the
general contractor, H.V. Collins, hired the concrete company as a
subcontractor.
"Of
course we're concerned that the image of the judiciary not be caught up in
this," she said. "But it's difficult to say because we don't know where
the investigation is going."
Mike Stanton
can be reached at (401) 277-7724, or mstanton [at] projo.com