12 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 22, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
police beat COMPILED BY EMILY DAVENPORT, SUZANNE MONTEVERDI AND ROBERT POZARYCKI
106th Precinct
South Queens
Mob captain and two crew
members admit to running
loansharking ring
A reputed mob captain from Howard
Beach and two alleged associates have
copped pleas to their roles in a multimillion
dollar racketeering ring, federal
prosecutors announced on March 19.
Ronald (aka Ronnie G) Giallanzo, 47,
of Howard Beach, an acting captain in the
Bonanno crime family, and fellow mobster
Michael Palmaccio, 46, of Queens
pleaded guilty on March 19 to operating
a loansharking racket over a 10-year period,
according to U.S. Attorney Richard
Donoghue.
Another friend of theirs — Nicholas
(aka Pudgie) Festa, 37, of Oceanside, NY
— entered a guilty plea on March 8 to similar
charges. Donoghue said that all three
individuals face a maximum of 20 years
imprisonment when they are sentenced.
Seven other co-defendants have previously
pleaded guilty in the case, he noted.
“Through their acts of violence,
Giallanzo, Palmaccio and Festa reaped
substantial illicit profi ts at the expense of
their loansharking victims,” Donoghue
said on Monday. “With today’s guilty
please, these defendants are being held
responsible for their destructive role in
perpetuating organized crime’s presence
in the community.”
Federal prosecutors said Giallanzo,
Palmaccio and Festa were part of a
Howard Beach-based crew that operated
a loansharking ring. According to the
indictment, they lent out more than $3
million to customers who were charged
exorbitant interest rates.
Authorities said that Giallanzo oversaw
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the operation even while he was incarcerated
for a time on an unrelated matter,
and directed his underlings to take violent
actions against individuals who missed
their required weekly repayments.
In one episode outlined in the indictment
last March, Giallanzo and an
unidentifi ed cohort brutally assaulted a
loanshark customer (who had borrowed
$250,000 from Giallanzo but failed to
make his weekly payments) until the individual
wound up soiling himself from
the beating. Giallanzo allegedly screamed
at the customer, “Where’s the f—ing
money?” as he attacked him.
As part of his plea bargain, Giallanzo
will forfeit $1.25 million to the federal
government and will be required to sell
the Howard Beach mansion he constructed.
Once a modest one-story ranch home,
Giallanzo transformed it into a palace
that could have doubled as a mob boss’s
home on Th e Sopranos.
Palmaccio and Festa also agreed to each
forfeit $500,000 for their roles in the loansharking
scheme.
111th Precinct
Bayside, Douglaston, Flushing,
Little Neck
Man tries to cash winning
ticket at Flushing deli
he burglarized
A local man who tried to cash in a winning
lottery ticket he allegedly stole from
a Flushing deli the previous day has been
apprehended, prosecutors said.
Anthony Rodriguez, 31, was arrested
on March 12 by the 111th Precinct. He
faces charges of burglary, grand larceny
and criminal mischief in the third degree
and is being held on $75,000 bail.
According to the criminal complaint
provided by the Queens District
Attorney’s offi ce, on Feb. 1, Rodriguez
allegedly entered a construction site at
195-02 47th Ave. and proceeded to cut
a hole in the drywall separating the site
from the adjacent storefront, America’s
Favorite Deli.
Surveillance footage allegedly shows
Rodriguez climbing through the hole,
entering the deli and going to the cash
register and lottery station, where he
removed approximately $5,000 in cash
and $3,500 worth of lottery tickets. He
then exits the location through the same
hole in the wall.
On Feb. 2, an employee at the deli
entered the business and observed that
the location was ransacked. Later that
same day, Rodriguez entered the deli
during business hours and attempted to
cash in a scratch off lottery ticket, which
had a serial number matching one that
was reported stolen in the incident, prosecutors
said.
Th e defendant is scheduled to return to
court on March 27.
According to law enforcement sources,
Rodriguez has been linked to other
commercial burglaries in the area.
Information on these incidents was not
available.
112th Precinct
Forest Hills and Rego Park
F.H. man gets 10 years
behind bars for child porn
A Forest Hills man was ordered to serve
a decade in federal prison for making a
12-year-old girl take sexually explicit photos
and spreading them on social media
when she refused to continue, prosecutors
announced March 20.
Christopher Arroyo, 26, was charged
with coercing and enticing a minor to
engage in sexually explicit conduct. He
was sentenced to 10 years in prison plus
fi ve years’ supervised release to follow
Arroyo’s prison sentence, during which
time he must register as a sex off ender,
and he will not be allowed unsupervised
contact with minors.
According to trial testimony, in 2012,
Arroyo used Facebook and other social
media platforms to meet a 12-year-old
victim and then enticed her to take sexually
explicit images of herself and engage
in other sexual conduct.
Prosecutors said Arroyo continued to
exploit the girl for years, and when the victim
refused to comply with his demands,
Arroyo threatened and harassed her, stating
that he would publicly post images of
her across the Internet.
Th ree years later, in 2015, Arroyo created
multiple fake social media accounts
and posted explicit images of the victim.
Th e FBI traced Arroyo’s online activity to
his residence in Forest Hills and executed
a search of his home, seizing multiple
computers and other electronic devices.
A forensic examination of those devices
revealed that Arroyo had archived images
of the victim in an electronic folder bearing
her name.
115th Precinct
Corona, East Elmhurst, Jackson
Heights
Jackson Heights woman
convicted of animal
cruelty and neglect
A Jackson Heights woman will pay the
price aft er being found guilty of failing to
care for the 67 cats and dogs she housed in
her urine- and feces-fi lled home that investigators
uncovered more than two years
ago, prosecutors announced on March 14.
Elizabeth Grant, 50, was convicted on
108 counts of animal cruelty, failure to provide
proper sustenance and failure to provide
proper food and drink to impounded
animals. She is due to return to court on
April 29 and faces up to two years in prison
and a ban from owning animals, Queens
District Attorney Richard A. Brown said.
According to trial testimony, on Jan.
6, 2016, a crime prevention offi cer went
to Grant’s home to visit Grant’s mother,
who had been a victim of a crime. No one
answered when the offi cer knocked on the
door, but the offi cer discovered that it was
open — and saw animals inside the home
living in apparent fi lth.
Th e offi cer left the home, then returned
on Jan. 28 with with members of the
ASPCA. Upon their arrival, Grant’s mother
answered the door; police and ASPCA
members saw excessive amounts of feces
and fur throughout the living area, and
were greeted with an overpowering stench
of urine. Th ere was also trash strewn amid
the clutter.
Law enforcement sources said the animals
living inside the home had patches
of fur missing and crusted eyes, and
one cat appeared to not be able to walk. A
court-authorized search warrant was executed
that same day, and members of the
ASPCA rescued 55 cats, 12 dogs and two
turtles.
Many of the animals, which were examined
by a licensed veterinarian and supervisor
of the ASPCA’s Forensic Sciences
unit, had severe dental diseases, severe ear
infections, ear mites, as well as pain and
discomfort and a host of other ailments.
One dog, named Dorothy, was vomiting
and had diarrhea related to chronic kidney
and liver disease. Most of Dorothy’s fur
was matted with feces and she had severe
dental disease and a chronic illness associated
with her digestive system. Due to
Dorothy’s extremely poor health, she had
to be euthanized.
A total of 12 animals had to be euthanized
due to Grant’s neglect; however,
50 animals have since been adopted and
placed in good homes.