Bruno now joins LaBarca behind bars
A Gambino crime family associate last Friday was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for executing a fellow mobster in Howard Beach in 2002 and conspiring to cover up a federal grand jury investigation into the murder, federal authorities announced.
Gennaro Bruno, 43, who was arrested in late October 2014 and brought to New York from Las Vegas, admitted to the murder of Martin Bosshart in federal court last month.
Bruno took Bosshart, who was also Gambino associate at the time, to a secluded spot off 155th Avenue near Lahn Street in the late hours of Jan. 2, 2002 and shot him in the head, U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Robert Capers said in a release.
The mobster, who had a lengthy criminal record even before he murdered Bosshart, did not make any public comment before his sentencing. Bruno, according to Capers, was working to move large quantities of marijuana from Canada to New York for the Gambino crime family when Bosshart, then 30, conspired to exclude one of Bruno’s co-conspirators from the operation.
Bruno evaded justice for years and obstructed a grand jury investigation into the murder, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, while still continuing to make money for the Gambino family though drug trafficking and extortion.
Bruno also pleaded guilty to extorting payments from a Queens waste carting company, according to the government.
Before formally joining the crime family, Bruno allegedly committed other crimes as part of the Ozone Park Boys, a Gambino crew also known as the Liberty Posse, and the Young Guns.
Todd LaBarca, a co-conspirator and alleged Gambino associate, pleaded guilty to Bosshart’s murder and other racketeering charges in April 2012 and is serving a 23-year sentence.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in 2013 decided not to pursue the death penalty against several alleged Mafia members, including those involved in the Bosshart case.
— Anthony O’Reilly