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Gotti family wedding like a scene from ‘The Godfather’

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By Ian Mohr and Mara Siegler

Minimum wedding gift for John Agnello and Alina Sanchez was $5,000, left in a birdcage
The lavish wedding of John Gotti’s grandson would have made the Dapper Don proud: Guests were shaken down for minimum gifts of $5,000 and gangsters had to stagger their appearances to avoid unlawful contact with fellow criminals, the New York Post has learned.
In a scene straight out of “The Godfather,” well-wishers arriving at John Agnello’s wedding last weekend deposited their envelopes in an “elegant birdcage” by the door, sources said.
With about 500 people attending the event at the swanky Oheka Castle on Long Island, the former “Growing Up Gotti” star and bride Alina Sanchez raked in $2.5 million.
That haul puts to shame the $350,000 that Agnello’s uncle, mob scion John “Junior” Gotti, pocketed at his lavish, $1,000-a-plate wedding reception at the Helmsley Palace in 1990.
Sources said Agnello and Sanchez’s around-the-clock wedding began at 5 p.m. Friday and lasted until 1 p.m. Saturday, and included a multi-course meal at midnight and breakfast at 7 a.m.
The lengthy bash allowed certain guests to come and go at intervals, much like Vanity Fair’s annual Oscar party.
But unlike the mag’s tiered invites to A-listers and wannabes, legal considerations drove the timing at the Oheka Castle, where politically connected owner Peter Melius was shot in the face during a still-unsolved ambush last year.
“Felons can’t consort together,” one source said.
“You have to stagger the felons. That’s standard mob procedure.”
Sources also said there was “enough security to guard an army.”
The groom’s father, Carmine “The Bull” Agnello, showed up with two law enforcement officers who stood guard at the doors, one source said.
The elder Agnello had to get a judge’s approval to travel from Cleveland, where he’s awaiting trial on racketeering charges in an alleged scheme to weigh down junked cars with sand and dirt before selling them for scrap metal.
He also blew his stack when he saw ex-wife Victoria Gotti — the groom’s mom — with her boyfriend, former soap opera star Jack Scalia, and “was yelling on the grounds before the ceremony,” a source said.
Guests included John Travolta, who is set to portray the late John Gotti in a planned biopic, and his actress wife, Kelly Preston, as well as “Entourage” actor Kevin Connolly, who was recently tapped to direct the oft-delayed flick.
John Gotti, once head of the Gambino crime family, pictured in 1990. He died of cancer in 2002 while in prison.
A team of feds also kept watch outside the gates, according to a law enforcement source.
“We want to gather some intel on which mobsters are still hanging around,” the source said.
Sources also said that the wedding was listed under the name “Sanchez,” and that staffers at Oheka Castle had to sign confidentiality agreements.
A spokesman for Victoria Gotti said, “I think whomever is creating these stories has watched ‘The Godfather’ one too many times.”

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