Gambino And Bonanno Family Members Charged With Drug Trafficking, Loansharking and Firearms Offenses

BROOKLYN – Two Brooklyn men associated with the Gambino crime family were arrested yesterday and charged alongside two others from the Bonanno crime family at the federal courthouse earlier today with narcotics trafficking, loansharking and firearms offenses. The charges in the indictments are merely allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The defendants were identified as Paul Semplice (54, of Brooklyn, a member of the Gambino crime family); Paul Ragusa (46, of Brooklyn, an associate of the Bonanno and Gambino crime families), as well as Damiano Zummo, an acting captain in the Bonanno crime family, and Salvatore Russo, an associate of the Bonanno crime family.

These arrests and charges are the results of a two-year long investigation conducted by US and Canadian authorities, with help of a confidential informant who became a member of the Bonanno crime family.

Details form the indictments and other court filings reveal that:

• Zummo engaged in a cocaine trafficking with Russo and others, including selling over a kilogram of cocaine inside a Manhattan gelato store as recently as September 14.
• Zummo is also charged with laundering over $250,000 in cash by providing business checks issued to a fictitious consulting company that purported to bill the company for consulting services, he kept a 10% fee.
• Semplice is accused of loansharking whereby he and others charged interest rates of up to 54% per year for loans.
• Ragusa is charged with being a felon in possession of nine firearms, including three automatic assault rifles and one silencer. As alleged, Ragusa transported the firearms in exchange for $2,000 in cash.

If convicted, Zummo and Russo are looking at a mandatory minimum sentence of 10
years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment; Semplice faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on each of three loansharking charges; and Ragusa faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment under the Armed Career Criminal Act.