“Initially there was an assumption that he left quickly and would be caught quickly, but as the weeks have passed

without arrest, AMW has joined the manhunt,” said Greenberg, adding that the planned segment would also “get into the current health, or lack thereof, of the mob in America.”

When the arrest team, which included FBI agents, federal Department of Labor agents and NYPD detectives, showed up at his Bellmore, Long Island home to apprehend him on February 7, Little Nick was nowhere to be found.  

Law enforcement officials scoffed at accounts – reported by The New York Post and repeated by Gang Land – that Corozzo avoided arrest because of a phone tip from his daughter Bernadette (left) several minutes before FBI agents knocked on his door at 6 AM.

According to that report, Bernadette saw her husband, reputed soldier Vincent Dragonetti, (right) get arrested outside her home several minutes before 6 AM, and called her father, who lives a block away. 

“Members of the arrest team were stationed at the front and back doors by then and would have seen Little Nick if he scampered out,” said one investigative source. “He’s little, but he’s not invisible. He wasn’t there that morning.” 

Little Nick, who was once viewed as a successor to family boss

John Gotti, is 5-foot, 5 inches tall, weighs in at 170 lbs., has gray hair, and brown eyes, according to the information the FBI provided AMW this week.

The powerful capo was conspicuous by his absence yesterday as his brother, Gambino consigliere Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo (left) and 21 others crowded into the courtroom of Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis for the first status conference in the monstrous case.

At the session, prosecutors put JoJo on notice they would soon file papers seeking to disqualify his lawyer, his son Joseph, from the case for a conflict of interest. While not unexpected – the feds have charged attorney Corozzo with being house counsel for the crime family in prior cases – the move adds more intrigue to the already controversial 62-defendant case.

Two weeks ago, Corozzo moved to disqualify Garaufis in a well-researched motion that has since been joined by eight other lawyers. Essentially, the lawyer (right) accused the feds of “judge shopping’’ by designating the case as “related’’ to Garaufis even though he has not presided over any trials involving Gambino family members. By contrast, two judges have had cases with several of the named defendants in this indictment. The defense position is that this case should be assigned randomly, as most are.

The government’s response to Corozzo’s motion is due next week.

Acting boss John (Jackie Nose) D’Amico heads another large contingent of co-defendants who are slated to appear for a status conference today.

For 11 long years – up until last March – Genovese capo Michael (Mikey Cigars) Coppola eluded authorities who had sought to obtain DNA samples from him that they believed would tie him to a storied 1977 gangland-style rubout.

After sitting in prison for 11 months, Coppola must wonder if his pretty astounding feat – allegedly accomplished with the help of his wife and his son, a reputed wiseguy who’s also housed in a federal lockup these days – was worth the effort.

As Gang Land reported last fall, comparisons of Coppola’s DNA with hair found at the Bridgewater N.J. site of the John (Johnny Cokes) Lardiere murder were not conclusive. And while Mikey Cigars is still technically charged with the slaying, he hasn’t been indicted, and won’t be any time soon.

Rather than dwell on what might have been, however, Coppola, 61, along with his wife Linda, 65, and their son, Louis Rizzo, Jr., 42, have chosen to put the matter behind them and move on, Gang Land has learned.

The entire family has agreed to plea bargain deals that will dispose of the little remaining matter – and in the big scheme of things, it is rather small – of the federal harboring and fraud charges they face in connection with Coppola’s years on the run.

Sources say Mikey Cigars, who, according to court records oversaw his extensive waterfront rackets while he was on the

lam, will get the longest prison term, about 42 months. His wife Linda will receive the most lenient sentence – four-months of home confinement.

Their son Rizzo Jr., (right) who was overheard in tape recorded discussions with his father last year, will spend less time behind bars than his father – about three years, said one source – with mob associate Philip (Horse) Albanese receiving a lesser term, according to agreements worked out between defense lawyers and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

Assistant U.S. attorney Taryn Merkl did not give specifics, but she disclosed the agreements – which sources say federal prosecutors in New Jersey have approved – earlier this month in a letter to Brooklyn Federal Judge Dora Irizarry. The judge ordered Merkl to report the status of the plea bargain talks, which began last fall, by the end of the week.

The deals will bar federal prosecutions of the defendants in the Garden State, but they will not cover state murder charges against Coppola if authorities can obtain evidence to back up the account of Luchese turncoat Thomas Ricciardi.

According to Ricciardi, after Coppola’s gun, a silencer-equipped .22 pistol, jammed, Lardiere moved toward him and cracked, “What’re you gonna do now, tough guy?” 

Mikey Cigars, said Ricciardi, had a ready response. He reached down, pulled a .38 caliber revolver out of an ankle holster, and pumped four bullets into Johnny Cokes. (left)

You’d think that transportation magnate Domenic F. Gatto would have breathed a sigh of relief and moved on when bus drivers’ union president Salvatore Battaglia pleaded guilty to labor racketeering on the eve of his trial last month.

After all, the guilty plea meant that Gatto, a prosecution witness against Battaglia, would not have to publicly admit that through his father’s mob connections he began paying off wiseguys and corrupt union officials in the scandal-plagued school bus industry in 1974, as he had previously told the FBI.

But instead of thanking his lucky stars, Gatto lashed out at Gang Land for breaking news stories about his and his father’s reputed mob ties. Gatto moved to file a suit in State Supreme Court in Staten Island, where his bus company, Atlantic Express Transportation Corporation, is located. In a rare move, Gatto asked the judge to keep the specifics of the suit secret.

So far, the papers remain sealed. But some details about the suit, including an allegation that Gang Land’s columns about Gatto were inaccurate and defamatory, emerged during oral arguments before Judge Anthony Giacobbe.

“They’re going to lose this lawsuit,” responded Gang Land’s lawyer, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma. “They’re not going to prevail,” he added, noting that “Capeci has the documents” to back up everything in the online columns.

Under no circumstances should the lawsuit be conducted in secret, argued Margulis-Ohnuma, (right) who questioned Gatto’s motives for trying that tactic. In the end, the judge denied Gatto’s motion to seek redress at a secret proceeding.

After losing that issue on his home turf, Gatto’s Park Avenue law firm of Silverman Sclar Shin & Byrne appealed Giacobbe’s decision to the Appellate Division in Brooklyn.

“Secret lawsuits are not allowed in this country - whether Gatto wants to spend his school bus money paying off the mob or paying his lawyers, it won’t make any difference,” said Margulis-Ohnuma.