Seems that alleged Bonanno crime family acting boss Thomas “Tommy D” DiFiore believes family captain Vincent Asaro is responsible for his recent arrest. In court documents filed by DiFiore’s lawyer requesting bail he blames the big-mouthed Bonanno family captain directly for dragging him into the recent convictions. Vincent and his son Jerome are facing charges including arson, murder, and their parts in the legendary Lufthansa heist while DiFiore is charged with a single count of extortion. The extortion charge against DiFiore stems from a secretly recorded conversation between Vincent and a mob rat which has caused the unrest in the Bonanno family ranks.
“Thomas Di Fiore”
Vincent Asaro was captured on a secret wiretap during a conversation with his cousin Gaspare “Gary” Valenti who had turned rat and was wearing a wire talking about a mafia payoff. He said to his cousin that “Tommy” took a $15,000 cut from a loan shark payoff of $40,000 that he had received. Asaro always says “He took 15 grand, i want to kill the mother******” on the recording according to court documents. Federal prosecutors claim that the “Tommy” mentioned by Asaro on the tape is Thomas DiFiore and that he hold the ranks of acting boss in the Bonanno family.
Defense lawyer Steve Zissou claims that even if the prosecution could get a jury to believe that the “Tommy” Asaro mentions is indeed his client there is no reason to believe that anything Asaro said was even truthful while calling him a lying degenerate gambler. During his argument for bail he also made the argument that the case could include years of pre-trial motions by the government and defense for the Asaros part of the case while his clients trial could start quicker and would not take long so it was unfair to keep him imprisoned for that extended time period.
DiFiore has been in prison since he was arrested back on January 23rd of this year. He is facing a possible sentence of up to 20 years if convicted of extortion. Zissou also mentioned that several other high ranking New York mafia members had previously been granted bail facing worse charges then his client. But the judge wasn’t buying the defenses argument and ruled the government had substantial evidence that DiFiore was named as acting boss of the Bonanno family back in 2012 and was the highest ranking Bonanno mobster on the streets at the time of his arrest giving him power over the mob family making him a danger to the community. He denied the wiseguys bail request.
