Hours after the
arrest of Matthew L. Guglielmetti Jr., 56, on a charge of conspiracy to
distribute cocaine, the FBI and state police raid a New England Laborers office
and a Cranston concrete company.
Journal
Staff Writers
Friday,
January 21, 2005
State and federal agents arrested a capo regime in the Patriarca crime family yesterday and also searched offices of the Laborers' International Union in Providence and a Cranston concrete company that has employed the mobster as well as the son of a top state judge.
Matthew L.
Guglielmetti Jr., 56, was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The
government accused Guglielmetti of agreeing to protect a major shipment of
cocaine that was passing through Rhode Island en route to Canada.
According to
an FBI affidavit, the drug case grew out of a larger undercover investigation
in which an agent posing as a businessman operated a business with
Guglielmetti, who was a silent partner.
Authorities
declined comment on the ongoing investigation. But hours after Guglielmetti's
arrest, FBI agents and Rhode Island State Police detectives armed with empty
boxes and search warrants descended upon the offices of the New England
Laborers in Providence and Capital City Concrete in Cranston.
The agents
arrived shortly before noon at the Arthur E. Coia Building at 226 S. Main St.,
Providence, a red-brick building that holds office space for various operations
of the New England regional operations of the Laborers.
A uniformed
state trooper and Providence police officer barred reporters from entering. But
inside, agents could be seen on the first floor, which includes the union's
organizing department, and also going upstairs, which includes offices of the
New England Laborers' Labor-Management Cooperation Trust.
Photographed
from outside, a federal agent enters an elevator, as Trooper Jeffrey Clark
stands watch in the lobby of the Arthur E. Coia Building in Providence during
yesterday's raid.
Simultaneously,
other law-enforcement officials arrived at Capital City Concrete at 108 Phenix
Ave. in Cranston, a two-story white house converted into offices.
Guglielmetti
worked for Capital City Concrete, which employs union construction workers,
when the company helped build the parking garage for the planned new Kent
County Courthouse over the past few years.
One of
Guglielmetti's coworkers at Capital City Concrete was Albert E. DeRobbio II,
the son of Chief District Court Judge Albert E. DeRobbio.
Until last
year, the younger DeRobbio was a vice president of Capital City Concrete, which
is owned by his wife, Lori Mason DeRobbio. He no longer works for the company
and faces charges of assaulting his wife last summer; the couple is in the
midst of a divorce marked by squabbling over assets, including the concrete
company.
GUGLIELMETTI'S
ARREST follows a scheme that the FBI says was hatched because the mobster
needed some cash for Christmas.
According to
an affidavit filed in federal court yesterday by FBI Special Agent Joseph
Degnan, several FBI agents had been working undercover in Rhode Island and
elsewhere, for an undisclosed period of time.
"During
this undercover activity, an FBI undercover agent . . . was introduced to
Guglielmetti," the affidavit said. "In his undercover role, [the
agent] and Guglielmetti operated a business, with Guglielmetti as a silent
partner. During the operation of this business, Guglielmetti received money
from the business, including a share of the profits from laundering what
Guglielmetti believed were drug proceeds through the undercover business."
Then, last
November, the affidavit said, Guglielmetti met the undercover agent in Johnston
and "indicated a need to make some money prior to Christmas."
The mobster
and the agent discussed having Guglielmetti arrange protection for a large
shipment of cocaine that would be passing through Rhode Island from the South,
bound for Canada. They also discussed the possibility of laundering the
proceeds once the cocaine was distributed.
On Dec. 6,
according to the affidavit, Guglielmetti met with the agent again and agreed to
a payment of $1,000 per kilo for "babysitting" 67 kilos of cocaine;
they also discussed laundering at least half the proceeds once the cocaine was
sold in Canada.
The affidavit
said that the conversations were recorded on audiotape, and that some were also
secretly videotaped.
At a subsequent
meeting, on Dec. 13, Guglielmetti told the undercover agent that his
"people" would guard the cocaine, and agreed that someone could come
and pick up some of the cocaine for local distribution. However, the affidavit
quotes Guglielmetti as saying, "I don't want people in and out of there .
. . I don't want a guy walking in, taking three, running out, coming back,
taking four . . . coming back, taking five, you might as well just hang a sign
out and say we're doing drugs."
The cocaine
shipment was due in Rhode Island this week, the affidavit said, and would be
kept at a hotel. On Tuesday of this week, Guglielmetti arranged for two
associates he had enlisted to guard the cocaine to meet two other undercover
agents, posing as employees of the cocaine supplier, in Johnston.
Authorities
did not say where in Johnston the meetings took place.
Later, between
4 and 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the affidavit said, the original undercover agent met
Guglielmetti in Cranston and gave him a key to the hotel room where the cocaine
was, and told the mobster to have his two men there by 6 p.m.
Shortly after
6 p.m., Guglielmetti's two associates -- who were not named, or arrested
yesterday -- arrived at the designated room to find two undercover policemen
and 67 kilos of cocaine in suitcases. The four men remained together for about
five hours, during which time two more undercover agents came and took 18
kilos, purportedly for distribution in Central Falls.
During this
time, the affidavit said, Guglielmetti was with the original undercover agent
at another hotel. At 11 p.m., the agent called the hotel room with the cocaine
and told one of the undercover agents that Guglielmetti's associates were done;
Guglielmetti then talked to one of his associates by phone, and he and the
other associate left.
Yesterday
morning, Guglielmetti met with the agent in Johnston to receive payment.
Instead, he was arrested.
At 2:45 p.m.
yesterday, a handcuffed Guglielmetti was led into a federal courtroom for an
initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Martin. Clad in a dark
sweater, blue jeans and new white running shoes, Guglielmetti stood calmly
beside his lawyer, John M. Cicilline, as the judge summarized the charge
against him and asked him if he understood.
"Yes,
sir," he said softly.
Assistant U.S.
Attorney Kenneth P. Madden argued that Guglielmetti is a flight risk and danger
to the community, and should be denied bail. He faces a prison term of 10 years
to life, if convicted.
"The
strength of the evidence against the defendant is great," Madden argued.
"He dealt with an undercover agent -- in fact, several undercover agents
were involved -- and all of their conversations were audiotaped, and some were
videotaped.
Martin ordered
Guglielmetti held without bail at the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls.
He scheduled a preliminary hearing for next Friday.
GUGLIELMETTI
HAS been a prominent figure in the Rhode Island underworld for decades. In
1991, he pleaded guilty to federal racketeering conspiracy charges in Hartford,
Conn., and was sentenced to nearly five years in prison.
While
Guglielmetti pleaded guilty, seven others, including mob underboss Nicholas L.
Bianco, went to trial. During the trial, evidence surfaced that Bianco had sent
Guglielmetti to a Ramada Inn in Mystic, Conn., to meet with mobsters from the
Hartford-Springfield area.
As part of the
plea, Guglielmetti admitted that, on Oct. 29, 1989, he crossed state lines --
traveling from Rhode Island to Massachusetts -- to attend a Mafia induction
ceremony in Medford, Mass.
The ceremony
was a watershed moment. The FBI was able to record several prominent New
England mobsters, including Vincent Federico, Bobby DeLuca and Gaetano Milano,
having their fingers pricked and swearing blood oaths to the Providence-based
Patriarca crime family.
DeLuca, of
Lincoln, later rose to become a ranking member of the crime family.
Also among
those attending the ceremony were former crime boss Raymond J.
"Junior" Patriarca. Charges stemming from the undercover operation
sent Patriarca to prison for almost nine years.
One of the
mobsters, Biagio DiGiacomo, was recorded saying, "We get in alive in this organization,
and the only way we are gonna get out is dead. No matter what. It's no hope. No
Jesus. No Madonna. Nobody can help us if we ever give up this secret to
anybody, this thing cannot be exposed."
In the
mid-'90s, Guglielmetti was released from a federal prison in Sandstone, Minn.,
and returned to Rhode Island. He remained under the watchful eye of law
enforcement as he worked jobs as a construction laborer.
On July 3,
1997, Guglielmetti was treated for two stab wounds at Memorial Hospital of Rhode
Island in Pawtucket. He was "very courteous" to the police, but he
refused to provide them with any information other than his address and
telephone number.
Guglielmetti
also surfaced on law-enforcement tape recordings in a 2003 federal racketeering
and extortion case in Boston. A Massachusetts State Police affidavit identified
Guglielmetti as a Rhode Island capo in the Patriarca crime family and Luigi
"Baby Shacks" Manocchio, of Providence, as the boss.
The affidavit
went on to describe Guglielmetti's alleged role in helping to collect a mob
gambling debt in New Hampshire and in trying to mediate a dispute among mob
soldiers in Massachusetts. In one recorded conversation quoted in the
affidavit, Guglielmetti commiserates with two of the Massachusetts wise guys
about how their rivals are "throwing fish around" in an apparent
death threat reminiscent of the Godfather movies.
"I went
with a broad I had a fish in my door step inside the entry way," says one
Massachusetts mobster.
"That's
HBO," responds Guglielmetti.
"That's
the Sopranos," echoes another wise guy.
In another
recorded conversation, the affidavit said, Guglielmetti lamented that some
Mafia members were being promoted simply for their long years of service.
"So now,
I mean it's like, ah, a whore in the neighborhood, you know you stand here long
enough we'll use her," said Guglielmetti.
Guglielmetti
was not charged in that case. But prior to the indictment, Massachusetts and
Rhode Island state police did stop by the construction site of the new Kent
County Courthouse parking garage, where Guglielmetti was working for Capital
City Concrete, to notify him that he had been picked up on the court-authorized
recordings.
DURING
GUGLIELMETTI'S brief court appearance yesterday afternoon, FBI agents and state
police detectives continued their searches of the Laborers and Capital Concrete
offices for records pertaining to the larger investigation.
A secretary
for Armand E. Sabitoni, the Laborers' general secretary-treasurer and the
Laborers' New England regional manager, said that Sabitoni was traveling and
not available.
Dominick
Ruggerio, administrator of the New England Laborers' Labor-Management
Cooperation Trust and a state senator from Providence, could not be reached for
comment. According to a union Web site, the trust's mission includes
"creating long-term working relationships between contractors and the New
England Laborers."
The law firm
of Coia & Lepore, which is also in the Arthur E. Coia Building and has
close ties to the Laborers, issued a statement saying that its offices had not
been searched.
Meanwhile,
nobody was available at Capital City Concrete in Cranston. Late in the
afternoon, when a reporter called the company's office, a state police officer
answered the phone. He said that Lori DeRobbio was not there.
With staff
reports from John Freidah.
Bill
Malinowski can be reached at (401) 277-7019, or bmalinow [at] projo.com. Mike
Stanton can be reached at (401) 277-7724, or mstanton [at] projo.com