Two 'Goodfellas' accused of mob hits while NY cops

NEW YORK - Two retired New York detectives were charged with secretly working for the Mafia while employed as police officers and undertaking 11 murders or attempted murders, prosecutors said on Thursday.

In one of the most shocking accusations of police corruption ever in New York, Stephen Caracappa and Louis Eppolito were arrested on Wednesday evening for undertaking a series of Mafia murders, attempted murders, a kidnapping and various other crimes. The two were arrested in Las Vegas, where they now live.

Caracappa was a former member of the New York Police Department's organized crime homicide unit, while Eppolito whose father, Ralph "Fat the Gangster," was a Gambino soldier, co-wrote the 1992 book "Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob."

Eppolito, a New York police officer for more than two decades, also worked as an actor, playing the role of "Fat Andy" in the hit movie "Goodfellas" and playing character roles in several other Hollywood productions.

According to the complaint, Luchese crime family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso put Eppolito and Caracappa on the payroll at $4000 ($NZ5490) a month in exchange for information after he was shot in the 1980s by Gambino crime family associates.

The two former detectives accepted a $65,000 contract from Casso to kill Edward Lino, who was believed to be associated with the attempt on Casso's life, prosecutors said.

In a story line almost straight from mob movies like "Goodfellas," the pair are accused of kidnapping James Hydell, bundling him in the trunk of a car and delivering him to the man who killed him. Hydell, a Gambino crime family associate, was thought to have had played a part in the botched murder attempt on acting Luchese boss Casso.

Hydell's body was never found.

One attempted murder in which Eppolito and Caracappa are said to have had a role was on Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano, the late John Gotti's consiglieri in the Gambino crime family.

"This shocking, disgraceful conduct demands prosecution to the fullest extent of the law," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement.

The 27-page racketeering indictment was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court and accused them of working as paid moles for the mob for almost a decade.

"If these charges are proved it seems to be one of the most shocking examples of criminal activity I have ever witnessed," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes told reporters.

Eppolito was employed by the NYPD from August 1969 to February 1990. Caracappa worked as a police officer from June 1969 until November 1992.

As many as five of the murders in which the two purportedly played a role in occurred while they were employed as New York police officers.

"Eppolito and Caracappa were not two good cops who went bad. It seems clear they were two bad guys who somehow became cops," said Pasquale D'Amuro Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI's New York office.

- REUTERS