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This “Goodfella” is having a bad day.
The feds on Thursday will charge an elderly Queens mobster in the infamous Lufthansa Heist at Kennedy International Airport in 1978, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Federal agents are conducting a series of pre-dawn raids in the New York area, with one targeting Vincent Asaro, 78, of Howard Beach, sources said.
Asaro, reputedly a high-ranking member of the Bonanno crime family, was expected to be arraigned in federal court on racketeering charges stemming from the famed robbery at JFK immortalized in the Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas.”
The FBI said it would release additional information later Thursday, but sources said a total of five defendants are under arrest.
Asaro was the first suspect charged in the Dec. 11, 1978 robbery itself, which netted a team of brazen crooks $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels – a haul that would be worth about $20 million in today’s dollars.
The only other person arrested in connection with the heist was airport worker Louis Werner, who gave the mobsters inside information that helped them get access to the cash and jewels and make a clean getaway.
The other robbers either died or were rubbed out by paranoid mob bigs worried that they’d spill their guts and implicate others.
The feds said Asaro at the time was in charge of mob activities at JFK, where cargo thefts were common because of the huge amount of cash and other valuables that moved through the busy airport, sources said.
Others targeted in Thursday’s raids included Bonanno underboss Thomas “Tommy D” DiFiore of Commack, described as the highest-ranking Bonanno family member not behind bars.
DiFiore and the other three – identified by sources as Jerome Asaro, John Ragano and Jack Bonventre – were not charged in connection to the JFK heist, sources said.
All five were expected to be arraigned at 2 p.m. in Brooklyn Federal Court.
The raids resulted from an FBI search in June at the home of the late Mafia associate James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke in Queens.
Agents found human remains that were later identified through DNA testing as those of Paul Katz, who vanished in 1969 after Burke suspected him of being a stool pigeon.
In “Goodfellas,” Robert DeNiro played the murderous character “Jimmy Conway,” who was based on Burke, who died in 1996.
The feds always believed that Burke killed or had killed anyone who could link him to the JFK heist.
This “Goodfella” is having a bad day.
The feds on Thursday will charge an elderly Queens mobster in the infamous Lufthansa Heist at Kennedy International Airport in 1978, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Federal agents are conducting a series of pre-dawn raids in the New York area, with one targeting Vincent Asaro, 78, of Howard Beach, sources said.
Asaro, reputedly a high-ranking member of the Bonanno crime family, was expected to be arraigned in federal court on racketeering charges stemming from the famed robbery at JFK immortalized in the Martin Scorsese film “Goodfellas.”
The FBI said it would release additional information later Thursday, but sources said a total of five defendants are under arrest.
Asaro was the first suspect charged in the Dec. 11, 1978 robbery itself, which netted a team of brazen crooks $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels – a haul that would be worth about $20 million in today’s dollars.
The only other person arrested in connection with the heist was airport worker Louis Werner, who gave the mobsters inside information that helped them get access to the cash and jewels and make a clean getaway.
The other robbers either died or were rubbed out by paranoid mob bigs worried that they’d spill their guts and implicate others.
The feds said Asaro at the time was in charge of mob activities at JFK, where cargo thefts were common because of the huge amount of cash and other valuables that moved through the busy airport, sources said.
Others targeted in Thursday’s raids included Bonanno underboss Thomas “Tommy D” DiFiore of Commack, described as the highest-ranking Bonanno family member not behind bars.
DiFiore and the other three – identified by sources as Jerome Asaro, John Ragano and Jack Bonventre – were not charged in connection to the JFK heist, sources said.
All five were expected to be arraigned at 2 p.m. in Brooklyn Federal Court.
The raids resulted from an FBI search in June at the home of the late Mafia associate James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke in Queens.
Agents found human remains that were later identified through DNA testing as those of Paul Katz, who vanished in 1969 after Burke suspected him of being a stool pigeon.
In “Goodfellas,” Robert DeNiro played the murderous character “Jimmy Conway,” who was based on Burke, who died in 1996.
The feds always believed that Burke killed or had killed anyone who could link him to the JFK heist.
