Nearly 25 years ago, Queens hoodlum Peter Zuccaro proved his mettle as a stand up guy. Rather than talk about an up-and-coming neighborhood mobster named John Gotti, he thumbed his nose at the feds and took 12 years for two armored car robberies that netted him and his cohorts $1.1 million.

A few years later, Zuccaro (right) went the extra mile. He traveled from a faraway prison to take the stand as a defense witness at the newly crowned Mafia Don’s first racketeering trial –  the one that ended in a stunning acquittal – and testified that he never sent any cash from the robberies to Gotti or his underlings.

“What am I, Santa Claus?” Zuccaro said, as Gotti, his brother Gene and their five co-defendants smiled and nodded in unison.

These days, however, a revamped Gambino clan headed by a key aide of the late Dapper Don is hearing whispers that Zuccaro, 50, who was shipped here from an Atlanta federal prison earlier this year, is bringing tidings of joy to the feds during this yuletide season.

Prison sources, underworld sources, defense lawyers, even law enforcement officials, all concede that they have heard that Zuccaro – currently housed in a private Queens facility near John F. Kennedy International Airport – has caved under pressure from the feds and is working to get out from under a possible life sentence for trafficking in marijuana.

Zuccaro, a crew member of capo Ronald (Ronnie One Arm) Trucchio, was indicted in March as the leader of a drug ring that made $12 million by

distributing marijuana it grew in high-tech hot houses across the street from grade schools in Brooklyn and Queens, as well as on 100 acres that Zuccaro owns in upstate Andes, N.Y.

While running the huge New York drug ring from 1997 until this spring, Zuccaro was a member of Trucchio’s (left) Florida-based crew, earning $2.1 million from a 1995 robbery of an armored car depot and numerous other violent crimes, including home invasions and a kidnapping, according to court papers.

Rumors that Zuccaro was cooperating began – and escalated – as the feds systematically doubled the number of his codefendants from four to eight in the following months.

“I have heard the rumors and they are not true. He is not cooperating,” Zuccaro’s Miami-based attorney, Leonard Sands, told Gang Land.

But the rumors persist.

Penalties for marijuana arrests rarely are severe enough to create major mob turncoats. Sometimes they are though, and Zuccaro wouldn’t be the first pot peddler – and certainly not the most important one – to testify in a major federal prosecution involving murders and other mob mayhem.

Burton Kaplan, the key turncoat in the Mafia Cops trial – the most important corruption case in the history of the NYPD – was serving a 27-year rap for

marijuana trafficking when he decided to testify against ex-detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa.

Zuccaro faces a possible life sentence because the allegations involve large amounts of marijuana and money laundering, as well as drug activity within 1000 feet of a school.

In a converted warehouse equipped with heat lamps and specially built irrigation and exhaust systems across the street from P.S. 109 in East Flatbush, federal drug agents seized more than 2,800 pounds of extremely potent pot plants growing in nutrient-rich water, according to court papers filed by Long Island federal prosecutor Burton Ryan.

At the warehouse, Drug Enforcement Administration agents also seized 50 pounds of top-quality marijuana “buds” worth $5,000 a pound, a trademark of the Zuccaro operation that sources say earned him the nickname “Bud” among his drug cronies.

Indicted with Zuccaro are eight underlings, including his brother-in-law Michael Lezamiz, whose basement at 213-15 56^th Avenue in Bayside, Queens – across the street from St. Robert Bellarmine R.C. School – had served as a hydroponic growing center until shortly before the suspects were nabbed, according to court papers.

Meanwhile, as Ryan and the DEA continue their probe – sources say the feds have targeted about six more members of Bud’s drug crew – Zuccaro’s mob buddies hope that he remains “best buds” with them, not the feds.

After searching far and wide for a new attorney to defend him at his retrial, John A. (Junior) Gotti has selected a veteran criminal lawyer who sat about 10 feet away from him at the trial that ended in a mistrial in September.

Charles Carnesi, who did pretty well for Gotti codefendant Louis (Louie Black) Mariani the first time – he was convicted of securities fraud but beat loan sharking and extortion charges – will represent Junior at the retrial of the kidnap-shooting of radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa.

Mariani also faces a retrial for racketeering, but prosecutors expect to drop that charge when he is sentenced for securities fraud, freeing up Carnesi to represent Gotti.

“I am pleased and proud that John expressed the confidence to choose me,” Carnesi said. “I am also pleased that he is home enjoying the holidays with his wife and children, and am going to do everything in my power to keep him there.”

Mark Fernich, who represented Gotti with lead attorney Jeffrey Lichtman last time, said he will assist Carnesi, whom he praised as an “experienced, outstanding trial lawyer” who “will do a superb job in shredding the government’s witnesses.”

Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin, who complimented Carnesi’s cross-examination skills during the trial, is expected to approve the change in counsel, and relieve Lichtman from any role in the re-trial. 

For 25 years, Vincent (Chin) Gigante, who died in his sleep in a prison hospital this week at age 77, was a shrewd, cunning boss of the country’s most powerful Mafia family. But his legacy, as his obits and many Gang Land columns illustrate, is that of a mumbling, stumbling Daffy Don who roamed the streets of Greenwich Village in a ratty old bathrobe playing the fool in order to stay out of prison.

His “Looney Tunes” act served him well for many years but it prevented him from living large and enjoying the fruits of his plunder, or even having a casual conversation with an acquaintance for fear the FBI might use it to put the lie to his crazy man ploy.

Old habits die hard. Even after he was convicted of labor racketeering and incarcerated in 1997, Gigante was reticent, and kept his thoughts mostly to himself.

But after he pleaded guilty to feigning insanity in 2003, Chin seemed to enjoy small talk with inmates who shared space with him at the prison hospital in

Springfield, Mo., where he lived the last two and a half years of his life. Here’s a conversation he had with a card-playing buddy from Los Angeles whom he nicknamed, “Jimmy The Greek.”

Chin: “Who did you borrow from if you went broke in Vegas?”
Greek: “You probably don’t know him, but I used to go to a guy named Jasper who had a spot across from the old Landmark Hotel.”

Chin: “Jasper? You mean Jasper Speciale?”
Greek. “Yep. We all used to borrow from him in the ’70s and ’80s. You know him?”

Chin: “Jasper was a dear friend of mine. He wanted me to move to Vegas years ago and take part of his ‘Shy’ business.”
Greek: “How come you didn’t move out there Vince?”

Chin: “VEGAS!! Why the hell would I move there? I got Las Vegas right in New York City, day and night. Besides, Greenwich Village is the greatest place in the world Greek.”

Happy Holidays!

Gang Land is taking a holiday break. No matter which holidays you celebrate, or where you find yourself these days, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season, and bigger and better things in the new year! We'll be back Jan. 5.