Two politically astute Staten Island businessmen were caught meeting with gangsters and an allegedly corrupt union leader during the waterfront probe that snared Gambino boss Peter Gotti and 16 others on racketeering charges in June.

Neither businessman – both longtime friends and political allies of Borough President James Molinaro – has been accused of any wrongdoing. But both are subjects of a continuing federal investigation into the awarding of millions of dollars in fees and other costs, including government subsidies, that were used to renovate the Howland Hook Container Terminal, say law enforcement officials. 

Carmine Ragucci, the former president of Howland Hook, is a Gambino family associate, and according to court papers, funneled $10,000 a month in “tribute” payments to Gambino capo Anthony (Sonny) Ciccone.

Salvatore Calcagno, a developer who helped build the sprawling 220-acre freight forwarding complex on the island’s north shore, met the powerful capo (right) last year to seek help with an undisclosed problem at the huge terminal, according to court papers obtained by Gang Land.

Calcagno, a major Molinaro fundraiser during his primary and election campaigns last year, met Ciccone on Aug. 23, 2001 to iron out the problem, according to an affidavit by Organized Crime Task Force investigator Joseph Rauchet.

Before the meeting, Ciccone was overheard saying that Calcagno “probably got a problem now with that thing that happened down there,” a remark

Rauchet wrote was evidence that “Calcagno was seeking Ciccone’s intervention with a problem at Howland Hook, thus further evincing Ciccone’s de facto illegal control of the waterfront.” 

At the time, Calcagno was also a partner of Steven Molinaro, the Borough President’s son, in APS Trucking, a firm Rauchet described as “a ‘house’ trucking company at Howland Hook.”

The affidavit is one of dozens that detail the wiretaps and bugs the Task Force and the Waterfront Commission employed in a two year probe that led to the federal racketeering indictment last June against Gotti and Ciccone. Gotti, (left) Ciccone and six other defendants are scheduled for trial in January.

On Aug. 20, state investigators, who had begun their probe 16 months earlier, taped Ciccone setting up the meeting in a conversation in which he and his right-hand-man-in-crime, soldier Primo Cassarino, used various code words to refer to Calcagno, the affidavit said.

Cassarino told Ciccone that “the guy across the street from Italianissimo (Restaurant) wants to see you,” using the South Beach location of Calcagno’s construction company to refer to him. In agreeing to a lunchtime meeting, Ciccone used the less than flattering nickname, “Chubby,” to refer to the developer. 

During the next two days, Cassarino and Ciccone reminded each other several times about the planned meeting with “Chubby.” Ultimately, Ciccone

scheduled the sitdown at Brioso’s Restaurant in New Dorp, a meeting place they used so often, investigators had bugged it. Despite a successful installation, the bug had not been fruitful.

When Calcagno arrived, Ciccone, Cassarino, (right) and the President of Local 1814 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, Frank (Red) Scollo, were already there, seated in close proximity to the bug. Scollo, an alleged Gambino family flunky, had been waiting to meet Cassarino at a Nathans Restaurant when he was told to hightail it to the decidedly more upscale eatery.

But as soon as Calcagno got there, he and Ciccone left “the table and went to discuss business privately,” said Rachet, noting ruefully that “minutes later, Ciccone returned to the table and stated, ‘I’m done with Sal.’”

Calcagno, who declined to comment, never surfaced again during the probe, and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

During the same time frame, Ciccone and Cassarino were shaking down Ragucci, the former president of Howland Hook and head of Staten Island’s Conservative Party, according to the affidavits.

On Feb. 26 of last year, a bug in Scollo’s car overheard the union leader tell

Cassarino that Ragucci, about whom Ciccone had complained, was in the fold.

“I went to see Carmine. (In) March, he’s got $20,000 (for us,)” said Scollo. (left)

During the same ride in Scollo’s 1999 Buick Park Avenue, they discussed the firing of a worker who had fallen out of favor with Ciccone, and another topic that Cassarino pestered the union leader about that month, a job as a mechanic for his cousin Frank.

“Do me a favor Red, get him in as fast as possible,” he said. 

Four months later, Ragucci, who had been in charge of the marine terminal since it reopened in 1996, lost his post, a development investigators speculate was at the core of the problem that Calcagno met with Ciccone to resolve in August.

Ragucci could not be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for Molinaro said the meetings by Ragucci and Calcagno with Ciccone “was an old story” and declined to comment further. Like Gotti and Ciccone, Cassarino and Scollo are also scheduled for trial in January.

Last year, Ciccone had some harsh words for Anthony Scotto, (right) the legendary gangster he succeeded as the Gambino family’s man on the waterfront, during a visit to Guys & Dolls, a Staten Island barber shop that was bugged by the Waterfront Commission. (According to a quick and dirty Gang Land count, investigators placed bugs in one barber shop, one car, two social clubs and four eateries during the probe. They also tapped four cell phones, one home phone and one fax line.)

On Apr. 12, 2001, after noting that Scotto, a former ILA union boss who was convicted of labor racketeering in 1979, had tried to up his union pension by $280 per month, Ciccone said that he had contacted soldier Jerome Brancato, another defendant in the case, about it. 

“I said, ‘Go Jerry, go tell him (Scotto) that I said stop with this fuckin’ thing, you’re getting everybody in trouble.  You’re calling Red (Scollo), you’re fuckin’ terrorizing Red, Johnny Bowers (an ILA official) is scared shit. Just forget about it. What the fuck is with you? $280!  You ain’t got enough money?’....”

Ironically, Ciccone – like Scotto a convicted union boss – was blowing his stack about something he had tried years earlier: “I was entitled (too). When I went there (to the ILA), they told me that, that my appearance there terrorized every fuckin’ body.”

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

Hot off the presses! It's here, the book it took yours truly and Gene Mustain 17 years to do! Although we didn't know it at the time, we began working on Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti in 1985, when we began covering the Gotti story as news reporters.

The first edition came out in 1988, and we finished this new edition three days before Gotti died in June. Alpha Books has distributed it to the nation's bookstores.

With a 40,000-word update, the new edition contains the entire Gotti saga – from his treacherous rise to his defiant downfall and right on up to his time in prison and his death from throat cancer.

The 378 page, full-size book uses eight additional chapters, a prologue and an epilogue to complete the story we began telling (better than any other reporters, we might add!) when we covered the Gotti-orchestrated, midtown Manhattan assassination of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano.

For the last and best words on Gotti, this is the book to have. It is specially priced at Amazon.com at $11.87, more than five bucks off the suggested retail price.

    Not Really For Idiots

Whether you're a Gang Land regular or an occasional visitor, you'll enjoy  "The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Mafia," a book I wrote for Alpha Books that was published in December. It's filled with real stuff about real wiseguys and insight about the ways that mobsters make their money. It's 343 pages of true stories of life and death, honor and betrayal. Get it at your local book store, or at Gang Land's favorite, Amazon.com, where the powers that be have knocked the price down to $13.27, so low I am concerned that the Godfather of online booksellers has forgotten about my end.