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The year prior, a low-level drug dealer named Anthony Basile agreed to cooperate after being charged with a 1992 murder. Even his phone was immune from court-authorized wiretaps, since Tommy got his cellphones made special from a mob associated telecommunications company.īut by 2008, prosecutors had finally found their way in. By keeping his inner circle small and loyal, Tommy was never caught on tape by wayward snitches and federal cooperators. Various FBI agents have admitted that the Long Island-based godfather was adept at dodging police tails while he was on his way to high profile mob meetings. Through it all, Tommy artfully avoided FBI scrutiny, never dropping the ball when it came to counter-surveillance. Gioeli then brought the Colombos back into the good graces of New York’s various other Mafia groups by using longstanding connections to old pals, and helped get approval for his crime clan to officially "induct" new members. One of his key aides, a tough old-timer named Paulie Bevacqua, helped bring the various rebelling factions back under one flag. The family had barely survived a brutal civil war from 1991 to 1993 that left almost a dozen people gunned down, but Tommy had been instrumental in rebuilding the family and bridging the gap between the discontent factions. He had been at the top of the Colombo crime family since the early 1990s and, by all accounts, had done a pretty good job. That was the basis for the get-together at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, a location picked specifically because it was so quiet and unassuming that the FBI didn’t think about staking out the place.ĥ5-years-old, plagued with obesity-related heart problems and diabetes, Tommy was fed up with the Mafia. But, after years of dodging undercover tails and avoiding federal wiretaps, prosecutors were finally getting somewhere and Tommy could read the writing on the wall. Law enforcement pressure had been a part of Gioeli’s life since 2004, when the FBI first began investigating his role as the so-called "acting boss" of the Colombo Mafia family. Subpoenas were flying, search warrants were being executed. The FBI were casting an ominous shadow on Gioeli’s life, as well as the day-to-day lives of his two disciples Dino Calabro and Joey Competiello. He was there to discuss his future and, by extension, the future of New York’s most violent and turbulent Mafia clan. But on this pleasant Spring morning, Tommy wasn’t there to mull over Bible verses. He never missed the parish’s Sunday service, and was good pals with the pastor. He didn’t look out of place at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Massapequa, New York.
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At the grotto of a quaint, Long Island church, Tommy Gioeli sat with his two closest friends.