Sometimes in Gang Land, it’s not what you do, but whom you do it with that matters.

Last week, after enjoying nearly eight years of freedom, a mob drug dealer who supplied heroin to legendary Harlem drug merchant Leroy (Nicky) Barnes (right) during his heyday, was jailed for hanging around with the wrong crowd.

The feds didn’t nab Luchese capo Matthew Madonna  for committing a crime, but for associating with half a dozen wiseguys and wannabes at a pre-Memorial Day weekend get together at a Kennedy Airport hotel a year ago, federal authorities told Gang Land yesterday.

Madonna, 67, who served 20 years for heroin trafficking, had the misfortune to attend a May 23, 2002 meeting with some very talkative Luchese mobsters who were in the middle of a plot to shake down the owners of a Freeport eatery for up to $10,000 a night.

Tipped about the session in wiretapped conversations by soldier Vincent (Vinny Baldy) Salanardi (left) and capo John (Johnny Sideburns) Cerrella, FBI agents spotted Madonna with them and four others at the Radisson Hotel, according to an affidavit by agent Kevin Hallinan.

While using Salanardi – who began cooperating last month – to try and make a case against Madonna and two other Lucheses they spotted at the hotel, the FBI also took the easy way out against Madonna. It alerted U.S. Probation and Parole officials, who picked him up last

Wednesday and hit him with parole violations that could mean up to 18 months in prison, said FBI spokesman Jim Margolin.

Madonna and Barnes met in 1959 in state prison where they apparently spent a lot of time talking shop. On the outside, in the early 1970s, they established a sophisticated system for exchanging drugs for cash. It allowed the men never to be seen in public together with either drugs or cash, and was so clever that cops never cracked it, finding out about it only after Barnes was convicted and cooperated to get out from a life sentence.

It worked like this: once a month, Madonna and Barnes would meet on a Manhattan street corner. Madonna would give Barnes the keys for a car – its trunk laden with heroin – that was parked in a nearby municipal parking lot. Two days later, Barnes would park the car, filled with cash, in another lot, meet Madonna on another street corner, and give him back the keys.

Convicted in 1975 of charges unrelated to Barnes, Madonna was released in August 1995, with a special parole of eight years. Inducted into the Luchese family soon after, he has since been elevated to capo, according to court papers.

As Madonna awaits a hearing at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, he can compare notes about last year’s Radisson Hotel meeting with Cerrella and his chauffeur, Ralph Lento, (right) who wondered after the meeting if Madonna was an “official” capo or merely acting as one.

Bonannos Falling Fast

The Bonanno crime family is starting to resemble the 1992 Oakland A’s and the 1996 San Diego Padres – Major League Baseball teams who won their division races but finished in the cellar the following year.

After 70 years without a turncoat member, five Bonannos, including the family underboss and two capos, have officially defected in recent months.

And a sixth, Frank (Curly) Lino, (left) who is charged with taking part in a storied 1981 murder with boss Joseph Massino, seems ready to jump ship, according to court records and several knowledgeable Gang Land sources.

Last week, prosecutors filed a letter from Lino’s court appointed lawyer that put his client at odds with Massino and their codefendants, and the attorney, Barry Rhodes, at odds with Massino’s team of lawyers – David Breitbart, Diarmuid White and Scott Leemon.

Rhodes wrote that Lino’s attendance at a jailhouse meeting with Massino and defense lawyers was not approved by Rhodes, and that he instigated Lino’s transfer from the MDC to the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan a few days later to ensure it didn’t happen again.

In an amazing screw-up yesterday, deputy U.S. marshals brought Lino from the MCC to Brooklyn Federal Court and seated him next to Massino (right) for a status conference. Shocked prosecutors Greg Andres and Mitra Hormozi quickly had Lino escorted out of the courtroom.

And while Lino is still listed as a codefendant in a racketeering and murder indictment of Massino and three others, all indications are that he will soon be expunged as a defendant and placed in the category of potential

prosecution witness, as Gambino capo Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo was last week in an unrelated case in Manhattan.

Adding insult to injury, Bonanno associate Ronald Massie, (left) a loanshark and longtime Lino underling, has begun cooperating, linking Lino and other Bonannos to a wide range of criminal activity, including extortion, no-show jobs and mail fraud in a private telephone business Massie has run for 15 years.

Meanwhile, a move by Massino’s lawyers last week to ease restrictions that keep the Bonanno boss separated from Gambino boss Peter Gotti and Colombo leader Alphonse Persico backfired and landed Massino in segregated confinement – at least for a while.

In an effort to paint those separations as arbitrary – lawyers and relatives of one wiseguy are not allowed in the visiting area if another one is present – Breitbart told Judge Nicholas Garaufis that Massino was allowed to fraternize with acting Colombo boss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace.

“Cacace is in the next cell and they play gin rummy,” said Breitbart.

When Massino returned to the MDC following his court appearance, prison officials placed him in the hole.

After letting him stew for a few days, and letting him know he could thank his lawyer for his new accommodations, prison officials placed Massino in general population, but on a different floor from Cacace.

“Massino’s in better spirits now, but not Joe Waverly. He’s playing solitaire,” said one Gang Land observer.

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti – the book it took yours truly and Gene Mustain 17 years to do – tells the complete saga of John Gotti, from his treacherous rise to his defiant downfall. Although we didn't know it at the time, we began working on "Mob Star" 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 2002. We added a postscript, and Alpha Books has distributed it to the nation's bookstores.

With a 40,000-word update, the new edition contains the entire Gotti saga right 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. 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.