The once feared and powerful New England Mafia captain turned rat Mark Rossetti has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his violent crimes.
Rossetti pleaded guilty to charges of extortion and usury for lending money to gamblers at exorbitant interest rates and using violent threats in order to collect the debts on behalf of bookies. He will serve this latest sentence simultaneously with a previous sentence on drug charges. Rossetti was performing criminal acts while he was also acting as an informant for the feds. The 53-year-old mobster had a secret and controversial relationship with the FBI and it didn’t save him from years behind bars.
“Mark Rossetti”
It was another one of many blows to the New England crime family also known as the Patriarca family over last couple years. Attorney General Martha Coakley said Rossetti was leader of a violent criminal enterprise known as the Rossetti organization and he was one of 30 other Mafia members and associates indicted by her office in October of 2010. Coakley said the sentence was another step forward in the efforts of law enforcement against organized crime in New England. Rossetti told Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Locke that he never went past the ninth grade and worked construction and he understood the charges against him and his decision to plead guilty to them.
