Detective Did Jobs for the Mafia on the Side, Prosecutors Say
The New York Times
Hector Rosario, a Nassau County detective, raided a gambling operation that competed with the Bonanno crime family, according to federal charges.
More than a decade ago, a Nassau County detective burst into a nondescript shoe repair store on Long Island, flanked by colleagues intent on shutting down a backroom gambling operation controlled by the Genovese crime family.
Federal prosecutors say the detective, Hector Rosario, 51, was not on police business when he raided Sal’s Shoe Repair in Merrick, N.Y. Nor were the men who joined him officers — prosecutors called them “associates.” The detective, prosecutors say, was secretly on the payroll of the rival Bonanno crime family, and the raid was intended to make his second boss happy.
Mr. Rosario, 51, was indicted in 2022 along with eight other defendants after a yearslong investigation into the Genovese and Bonanno families’ illegal gambling businesses. The eight other defendants have all pleaded guilty to charges that include racketeering and running illegal gambling businesses.
Mr. Rosario is charged with obstruction of justice and lying to F.B.I. agents who were investigating the illicit businesses, including the one prosecutors say he raided. He has pleaded not guilty. On Tuesday, opening statements began in his criminal trial before Judge Eric N. Vitaliano of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
Anna Karamigios, a federal prosecutor, said Mr. Rosario was on the Bonanno family payroll while he was a Nassau County detective. “He chose the crime family over the public he swore to protect,” she said. “When F.B.I. agents asked him what he knew, he lied. Again and again.”
Organized crime families like the Bonanno and Genovese once exerted considerable power over unions and industries such as construction in the Northeast. But starting in the 1980s, aggressive prosecutions sapped their power, and the Bonanno family saw members convicted or cooperate with the government. Even the family’s longtime boss, Joseph C. Massino, defected: In 2011, he became the first boss of an organized crime family to cooperate with federal authorities.
