Salvatore “Sam” Piccolo a soldier in the Philadelphia mafia has been sentenced to over 12 years behind bars for fraud and drug trafficking.
Piccolo admitted to staging a New Jersey pawn shop robbery so the owner could collect insurance money along with selling nearly half a pound of meth to an undercover FBI agent according to this DOJ report. The 68-year-old Jersey-based mobster has also been ordered to pay $174,025 in restitution to the insurance company that paid out for the fake claim. Piccolo has long-standing family ties to the mafia in Philadelphia. His uncle Anthony “Tony Buck” Piccolo was once the family’s acting boss and his nephew Domenic Grande is an alleged member and captain.
A mafia turncoat within the family has been recording conversations with mobsters from both the Philly and Jersey factions for over two years. This played a part in not only Piccolo’s arrest but also the arrest of fellow mob soldier Joseph (Joey Electric) Servidio. The hundreds of hours of recorded conversations allege the trafficking of various narcotics along with stolen cigarettes.
According to some reports, one of the people frequently referred to but unnamed on the tapes was, in fact, Domenic Grande. Salvatore Piccolo reported to Grande (his captain) in the Philly mob hierarchy according to sources. Grande has been referred to as a rising star within the Cosa Nostra family. He has also been on the fed’s radar for some time now.
They believe he may have been the shooter in the 2012 mafia hit on mob associate Gino DiPietro although he’s never faced charges in the case. It seems likely that the feds made an unsuccessful attempt at flipping Salvatore “Sam” Piccolo before putting him away in hopes of building a case against Grande and others within the organized crime family.
