Primo Cassarino
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Primo Cassarino | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 26, 1956 Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, U.S. |
Primo Cassarino (born April 26, 1956) is a New York mobster who became an enforcer for Gambino crime family, and extorted money from actor Steven Seagal.
Born in 1956 to first generation immigrants from Sicily, Italy, Cassarino was the son of a longshoreman. His cousin is Gambino soldier Mario Cassarino. As a young man, Primo Cassarino joined the Gambino family and eventually became a made man, or full member. Cassarino belonged to Gambino capo Anthony "Sonny" Ciccone's crew, soon becoming the leading "bagman" and extortionist on the Staten Island, New York waterfront. Cassarino's legitimate job was as a sanitation worker for the New York Department of Sanitation. In 1991, Cassarino was injured falling off a garbage truck. Over the next 15 years, he was involved in litigation with the City for a special disability pension.[1]
Cassarino's own lawyer once observed that his client had "the foulest mouth in Brooklyn."[2] At one point, law enforcement recorded Cassarino berating a debtor who was late on a loan payment:
a greaseball [bleeping bleep]. ... You're a greaseball no good [bleeper]. ... You're a [bleeping] slimy [bleeper]. ... You better hope I don't see your [bleeping] face . . .[2]
In 1997, Ciccone started receiving extortion payments from Carmine Ragucci, a leader of the Conservative Party of New York State and a terminal owner. It quickly became Cassarino's job to transfer these payments from Ragucci to Ciccone.[3]
In April 2001, Cassarino was tasked with delivering cash payments from Ciccone to Gambino boss Peter Gotti. The two mobsters would meet on a street in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens.[4]
