Joseph Sabella a captain in the Bonanno crime family has been sentenced to a little more than seven years behind bars.
The 54-year-old mobster seems to have gotten the soft end of the suggested federal sentencing guidelines after pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy. He was busted last year along with former acting street boss Joseph “Joe C” Cammarano and consigliere John Zancocchio among others on racketeering and extortion charges. Cammarano and Zancocchio opted to go to trial and were acquitted on all charges in a surprising upset over the feds. Sabella admitted to being a made man in the Bonanno family and that he had engaged in numerous racketeering acts. Judge Alvin Hellerstein said during the sentencing hearing “You were involved more extensively as a captain, as a leader, and you have to take responsibility as a captain to your family.”
According to the feds, Sabella operated as a soldier and then a captain within the New York Mafia family between 2012 and 2018. He engaged in various mafia related activities including extortion, fraud, and physical assault according to a federal press release. He played a role in the long term extortion of a New York based demolition company that brought thousands of dollars a year into the Cosa Nostra family. He also teamed up with Zancocchio and another Bonanno mobster in the beat down of a Staten Island strip club owner. The beat down lead to them taking control of the victim’s interest in the strip club along with an illegal loansharking and gambling business.
Sabella has been ordered to surrender to a South Carolina prison on August 27th according to court documents. It seems the Bonanno family is undergoing a bit of a shake-up of late. According to a previous About the Mafia report recently released Bonanno boss Michael Mancuso shelved Cammarano and Zancocchio along with two other captains. Now that Joseph Sabella will be off the streets for an extended period of time the crime families ranks have seemingly taken a bit of a hit. It will be interesting to see how things play out after the dust settles.
