Long Island detective accused of aiding Mafia family stands trial in Brooklyn

BROOKLYN (CN) — A former Nassau County detective helped the Bonanno organized crime family take down rival gambling parlor and staged at least one fake police raid to scare them into shutting down, prosecutors said during opening statements Tuesday as trial began against Hector Rosario.

The 51-year-old faces charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements to an FBI agent.

“The defendant, Hector Rosario, was a police officer who sold himself to the Bonanno crime family,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Karamigios said Tuesday. “He chose the crime family over the public he swore to protect.”

The government’s first witness and a former member of the Bonanno family, Damiano Zummo, outlined the plot to cut down their competition. He is cooperating with the government under a guilty plea following his 2017 arrest on drug trafficking charges.

The Bonanno family for decades dominated criminal operations in the New York City area as one of the infamous “Five Families,” alongside and in competition with the Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese families. While still in operation, these criminal organizations are a shell of what they once were, due to the federal racketeering law that has largely eradicated mafia activity.

Identifying himself as a former “soldier” in the crime family, Zummo said the scheme was concocted after a regular high-losing customer started going to one of the gambling spots run by competitors.

One of his associates suggested they hire Rosario to stage a police raid on the gambling parlor, known as Sal’s Shoe Repair, to scare them into shutting down, Zummo testified.

“I was all for it,” he said. “It meant more money for me.”

Zummo said he later got confirmation that Rosario conducted the raid. One of their gambling machines was broken in the process.

Rosario was paid $1,500 a month for his association with the crime family, Zummo said.

“He tried to make them think the police were onto him, to scare them into shutting down,” Karamigios said.

Zummo added that Rosario was also hired to conduct a fake raid on another competing gambling parlor to “go in there and intimidate them” — but the raid ultimately failed because Rosario and his associates couldn’t break their way into the parlor.

During openings, Karamigios said Rosario feigned ignorance when federal agents asked him if he knew the location of Sal’s Shoe Repair, which is where they claim he staged the fake raid.

But defense attorney Louis Freeman argued that Rosario did not to the police, and said he told them about the limited knowledge he had about the shoe repair shop.

“My client had said that shoe repair is a place where shoes get repaired, and he knew that,” Freeman said in openings.

Freeman also criticized the government’s witnesses, claiming the crime family members turned government cooperators were unreliable.

“Each of those witnesses were in organized crime and each of those witnesses have a cooperation agreement,” Freeman said.

Rosario is out on a $500,000 bond. He faces up to 25 years in prison for both charges.

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