Aging Colombo capo Charles (Charlie Moose) Panarella uses a cane and is long past his prime. But at 81, he has the swagger of a gangster who is so far ahead of the game that there’s no way the feds can ever get even.

Last week, after being nailed for labor racketeering, Panarella waltzed out of Brooklyn Federal Court slowly but surely, smiling broadly as he made his way to his car for a two and a half hour drive to his home in Kunkletown in northeast Pennsylvania.

“Be nice,” he said, wagging his finger at reporters. “Be nice.”

Charlie Moose has good reason to be so cocksure of himself.

In a life of crime that has spanned seven decades – his first arrest was in 1940 – Panarella has spent a scant few years in prison. Along the way, he reputedly got away with several mob murders, and by dumb luck, avoided death when rival gangsters who had targeted him for death mistakenly killed two Chicago businessmen and wounded two others in 1972 when they opened fire in an East Side restaurant, the Neopolitan Noodle.

A legitimate tough guy in his day, Panarella has survived three intra-family wars that left more than 20 dead. In the first two, he battled renegades aligned with

Crazy Joe Gallo; in the next, he sided with rebels under Little Vic Orena. In addition, he overcame a betrayal by his own crew that got him exiled to Las Vegas by boss Carmine (Junior) Persico (left) in the mid-1980s – just as Panarella’s fortunes really began to soar.

At the time, sources say, Persico was concerned that Charlie Moose would team up with capo John (Sonny) Franzese and undermine Persico’s leadership role as the feds were bringing charges that would ultimately send him away for good. When crew members – led by Moose’s brother-in-law John (Jackie) DeRoss – complained about Panarella’s flamboyant, self-centered and abusive style, Persico had all he needed and banished him to Las Vegas. In addition to DeRoss, Panarella had a large, star-studded crew of earners that included William (Wild Bill) Cutolo (right) and Gregory Scarpa. Among many other things, they dealt drugs, robbed banks and controlled sheet metal and restaurant unions.

“No question, Charlie had a powerful crew,” said one underworld source, who described Panarella as a hands-on crew chief. “He would stay out all night and make his guys meet him at 6 a.m. just to talk to them. He used to go out at night and demand all his guys go with him, like a wolf pack.”

Banished to Las Vegas, the savvy gangster saw and seized an opportunity to get back into the swing after Persico, his son Alphonse and DeRoss were all convicted of racketeering and sentenced to prison in 1986, and Orena was tabbed as the family’s acting boss.

Panarella began shuttling back and forth – overseeing the Colombo family’s Brooklyn interests in Locals 14 & 15 of the International Union of Operating Engineers while at the same time taking part in a money laundering operation

in Las Vegas that cost him 15 months in prison in 1995 and 1996. He also served as an adviser to Orena during his failed effort to take over the family during the bloody 1991 to 1993 war.

Sources said it was Charlie Moose’s institutional knowledge of the Colombo family’s long history of joint control over the union with the Genovese family that formed the basis for the current racketeering charges against him.

In the summer of 2001, law enforcement sources said, he flew to New York to protect the family’s interests at a “sitdown” with the Genovese family over a territorial dispute. According to court papers, the Colombos hold sway over little and no-show construction jobs in Brooklyn while the Genoveses control those in Manhattan.

During his visit, he was overheard on an Organized Crime Task Force bug asserting his control over the Colombo family interests and threatening lesser associates who questioned his authority, sources said.

Whatever. As he awaits trial along with brother-in-law DeRoss, (right) now the family’s underboss, Charlie Moose is so far ahead of the game that he can afford to smile and be nice when reporters approach him during the coming months.

A potpourri of wiseguys, mob associates and union officials are included in the racketeering and extortion indictment in which Charlie Moose is charged. Among them is Lawrence Persico, (left) son of the jailed for life boss and brother of the family acting boss, Alphonse, (below) who seems to be following in father Carmine’s footsteps.

And while the feds claim that Lawrence Persico used extortion to become a member of Local 14 and engaged in mail fraud and numerous other crimes to be paid for work he never performed, his attorney described his prosecution as a “Witches Brew” based on his client’s last name.

“They have tried to link him to the alleged activities of his father and brother,” said attorney Dale L. Smith. “But they are long on theory and short on evidence. Lawrence Persico, like you, me and most Americans, actually worked for the money he received. He was trained and qualified to do the work and collected his salary to help support his wife and two children.”

Persico, who suffers a bipolar disorder, spent seven weeks in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn (Aug. 12 through Oct. 3) after he refused to submit to a court ordered psychological examination that was precipitated by a notice filed by his prior lawyer that Persico intended to claim a “mental disease or defect” as part of his defense.

Smith told Gang Land he was still evaluating his overall defense strategy and hadn’t determined whether to use his client’s documented medical disorder at trial. “But he is definitely going to trial,” said Smith.